AMTRAK NEC: Springfield Shuttle/Regional/Valley Flyer/Inland Routing

[daybeers]

Enfield town leaders say no to million dollar 'quiet zone' to cut train horns

"It's intolerable at this point," Lareau said from his backyard overlooking railroad tracks. "Trains are going constantly. 24 hours a day."

Lareau said the near-constant passing of trains shakes his whole house down to the foundation. The volume and frequency of trains used to be roughly 10 per day, Lareau explained. Now, he says, that has increased by triple thanks to the new Hartford Line passenger rail, Amtrak and freight.

He believes the added rail traffic is making nearby homes for sale unattractive and causing his own home value to plummet. "It's about $40,000-$50,000 below the estimated value due to the train volume," he said.

To save his eardrums and cut down on train horns, Lareau petitioned the Federal Railroad Administration to make a stretch of tracks near his home a "quiet zone." But town leaders would have to pay the estimated $1 million price tag. It was a proposal quickly shot down by the city manager. When we tried to reach Christopher Bromson to find out why, he refused comment.

[gregorygrice]

His house is right at the south whistle post for Bridge Lane hahaha.

[TomNelligan]

"It's intolerable at this point," Lareau said from his backyard overlooking railroad tracks. "Trains are going constantly. 24 hours a day."

Sounds like the poor guy bought a house and then they suddenly constructed a brand-new railroad next to it. I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who should know what they're getting when they decide to live next to tracks. And I write as one who lives a couple hundred feet from a very active commuter rail line.

[gokeefe]

Issues such as this are why re utilization of existing corridors, especially active ones is so important. Its basically impossible for property owners to sustain an argument with regard to environmental impact if/when an EIS is conducted for any purpose.

[mtuandrew]

All of your points are very correct and I don’t have a lot of sympathy for Mr. Lareau either. That said, $1m for a quiet zone should be a town priority (higher property values means higher assessments) and ought to earn a state grant as well. For basic crossing safety, it’s better to have a four-quadrant gate than a bell anyway.

[bratkinson]

Perhaps having the town permanently remove the grade crossing would solve this poor-old-me boys' problem.

[shadyjay]

Earlier in the week, I was on the Vermonter northbound from New Haven up to Vermont, and observed there are still no quiet zones in place yet. I believe Meriden was supposed to get "trackside horns" but the horn was definitely coming from our locomotive and the square black signals are not yet active yet (which IIRC are supposed to indicate when the horns are in operation so that the engineer doesn't blow his).

Also as a side note, the Vermonter was still running with a single P42, despite it being full-on winter up north.

[gregorygrice]

Perhaps having the town permanently remove the grade crossing would solve this poor-old-me boys' problem.

They would have to remove 2 of them since he lives right in between them. They actually just finished replacing them too.

[daybeers]

Earlier in the week, I was on the Vermonter northbound from New Haven up to Vermont, and observed there are still no quiet zones in place yet. I believe Meriden was supposed to get "trackside horns" but the horn was definitely coming from our locomotive and the square black signals are not yet active yet (which IIRC are supposed to indicate when the horns are in operation so that the engineer doesn't blow his).

Somehow I'm not surprised by this. I wonder if it's more Amtrak's fault or the town's fault.

[gregorygrice]

The quiet zones in place were a failure so the town had them shut off. One of the reasons they were shut off because people were annoyed with the wayside horn.

[Arlington]

What's the difference between a quiet zone (which I think of as a place that has no horns at all), and a grade crossing that has a wayside horn, and a grade crossing where the train sounds its horn?

I live near a crossing that was long grandfathered but when that waiver expired and the trains had the sound all horns it was unbearable, and my city immediately spent something like a million dollars to restore the peace.

[gregorygrice]

What's the difference between a quiet zone (which I think of as a place that has no horns at all), and a grade crossing that has a wayside horn, and a grade crossing where the train sounds its horn?

I live near a crossing that was long grandfathered but when that waiver expired and the trains had the sound all horns it was unbearable, and my city immediately spent something like a million dollars to restore the peace.

All current Quiet Zone crossings that aren't grandfathered in have to have wayside horns. The wayside horn constantly blows a crossing sequence on loop the whole time the gates are down. Compare that to a normal crossing where a train just blows one crossing sequence.

In the case of Meriden the people there were getting annoyed with the constant sounding of the wayside horn and opted to just have them turned off.


In my opinion quiet zones crossings are useless and dangerous. The horn is on the train for a reason.

[Ridgefielder]

"It's intolerable at this point," Lareau said from his backyard overlooking railroad tracks. "Trains are going constantly. 24 hours a day."

Sounds like the poor guy bought a house and then they suddenly constructed a brand-new railroad next to it. I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who should know what they're getting when they decide to live next to tracks. And I write as one who lives a couple hundred feet from a very active commuter rail line.

This guy lives under the landing pattern for Bradley International. Parsons Road is 3 1/2 miles from the runway.

https://goo.gl/maps/bLoHoPG9wT52

He's got B737's coming over <1,000' off the deck but his problem is the train horn?

[gregorygrice]

Don't forget the odors from the sewage treatment plant next door too!

[Traingeek3629]

I have no sympathy for that guy whatsoever. Millions of people live less than 100 yards from an active railroad , and yet the area around only HIS house deserves a quiet spot? That is absurd. If you don't like train horns, don't live 50 feet from a railroad.