No upgrades for train crossings
The plaintive wail of the railroad siren has been celebrated in song and story. But it's a safe bet that the writers never lived beside railroad tracks. Nomeda Vaisviliene of Ipswich does, and she is not amused.
"It's very loud and it makes it impossible to sleep," she said last week.
Vaisviliene said she has lived in Ipswich for four years, but the sirens just began this month. "The horns sound every half-hour from 5:40 a.m. to midnight," she said. "Some trains are worse than others. The sound is more or less acceptable, but some drivers really lean on the horn."
She said she heard that horns are being sounded because the rail crossings need to be updated, but nothing is getting done because the town, the MBTA, and the federal government are haggling over who should pay for repairs.
"I'm not concerned just for myself but for my daughter," she said. "She's 14 years old and has epilepsy. She needs eight hours of sleep every night."
Robert Markel, Ipswich town manager, explained that the Federal Railroad Administration ordered engineers earlier this month to sound their horns when approaching any of the town's five crossings, from either direction, because the town missed a deadline to develop a plan to improve safety at the crossings.
The town asked for a waiver of the rules but the request was denied.
"Congress passed a law to improve safety at all grade crossings, including so-called quiet zones, which included the whole town of Ipswich," Markel said. "We were given until last month to come up with a plan."
According to Markel, regulations require a higher standard of safety for grade crossings where accidents have occurred within the last five years. Because there was an accident at the Topsfield Road crossing in March 2004, the town was required to meet that higher standard. In that accident, a driver stopped inside the safety gates but was not injured.
He said preliminary estimates found it would cost $1.2 million to $1.5 million to install upgraded gates and other security measures at all five crossings in town. "It's not doable," said Markel. "We don't have that kind of money. The entire town budget is only $37 million."
He said the town asked for a waiver because the requirement for enhanced safety would "fall off the table" five years after the accident, which will be March 2009, and the quiet zone could probably be reinstated without the new safety measures. But the Federal Railroad Administration did not agree.
"And the horns started sounding," said Markel." I can see why people are complaining; the crossings are so close together it seems as if the trains are sounding their horns all the way through town."
He said the town has authorized $15,000 for an engineering study to see if anything can be done.
But Vaisviliene is not waiting. She and her family are planning a trip to Maine, so her daughter can get some sleep.
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