Any info on conrail trains idling at marble hill station?

Every night, conrail trains idle multiple times, for up to an hour per train, at the marble hill station in the Bronx, making huge amounts of noise and spewing toxic fumes, directly opposite a residential neighborhood and across the river from a hospital. I'm told the trains idle here while waiting for a signal to proceed from farther up the tracks. I'm told that Metro North has control of these tracks. Any suggestions for how to protest this situation, whom or what department to contact, etc? Anyone aware of any prior protests of this particular issue? Thanks in advance.

A couple of points here.
First off, Conrail does not have any operations in New York City so Conrail is not involved here.
Second, You need to get with it, the railroad has been in operation in that area for many, many years and you moved there
long after the railroad was built so you should have been aware of railroad tracks in that area.
I doubt very much if any freight trains sit in that area for an hour at a time, the railroad does not have track capacity for
them to just sit there. Maybe you are think of BN Yard which is a Metro-North facility and there are no longer any freight
operations there, only Metro-North work trains or track equipment.
My biggest point, this is a forum for people who enjoy chatting about railroads and not a place for somebody to just join up
and complain. I think you should take your problems elsewhere.
Noel Weaver

This line is the Hudson Line, which is primarily a passenger line.

Marble Hill Station

So, what you're saying is you would rather not have these "smelly" and "toxic" trains running through your neighborhood even though you chose to move there well over a century after the railroad put its first spike in the ground. Okay, you want to know what will happen when there is no train for these commuters to take to work in the city? They will be driving through YOUR neighborhood to get there!

You think you have smelly and toxic now?

Think about that.

Charlie

Researching that trackage, does show that if any freight trains were to be in that area, they would be CSX freight trains and not Conrail. (Although you may see a former conrail engine still in blue paint going by on a freight consist, IF any freight does go by there)

CSX apparently has trackage rights along that line, until it gets farther up and then it controls some of it, via the CSX hudson subdivision. (so I read) So maybe some freight does go thru that station. However it's only a 3 track line and all three lines are used for passenger service. One of the lines appaerently is an express line, and the other 2 lines serve trains going north and south, so not much room to have freights going thru, and even if they did stop to wait for an all clear signal, it probably wouldn't be an hour, maybe like 10-15 minutes? And my experience is that passenger trains don't stay longer than 2-3 minutes in a station, they just pick up/drop off passengers and then off they go.

As far as trains go, figure that any line you live near is active, or if not, may someday be, and know that in advance when you buy or rent in an area that's close to a railroad line. Myself, I love trains and so this wouldn't bother me. Although I believe something similiar to this happened with NJT where deisel engines idling all night in winter due to cold weather, prompted complaints from people in area and now some have block heaters so they be shut down at night and still start right up in morning. I know from experience without a block heater in deisels in winter, they won't start if it gets too cold overnight. (Some of the equipment I work with is deisel)

bronxcat wrote:Every night, conrail trains idle multiple times, for up to an hour per train, at the marble hill station in the Bronx, making huge amounts of noise and spewing toxic fumes, directly opposite a residential neighborhood and across the river from a hospital. I'm told the trains idle here while waiting for a signal to proceed from farther up the tracks. I'm told that Metro North has control of these tracks. Any suggestions for how to protest this situation, whom or what department to contact, etc? Anyone aware of any prior protests of this particular issue? Thanks in advance.

it's quite simple, actually. pack your stuff, and move. problem solved.