Hevesi wants barriers for Fresh Pond trains
Posted on November 24, 2011 by Howard Koplowitz in Assembly, District 28
State Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) is calling on a city body to install sound barriers near the Fresh Pond Terminal in Ridgewood so residents will not have to hear loud freight trains passing by the neighborhood.
Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi wants the New York Metropolitan Council to require freight trains at the Fresh Pond Terminal to be quieter. Photo courtesy Bob Holden
Hevesi also urged the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council to compel train operators to buy more technologically advanced locomotives that emit quieter noises as the group formulates a regional transportation plan.
The Fresh Pond Terminal in Ridgewood processes all freight shipped out of Long Island, according to Hevesi’s office.
“Tracks to reach this terminal are directly behind my constituents’ homes, causing quantifiable quality-of-life issues,” Hevesi said. “Budgeting for small capital expenditures, such as sound barriers along the existing tracks, would go a long way toward mitigating the problems my constituents are experiencing now and avoiding health and quality-of-life issues going forward. I would like to see … sound barriers or other capital improvements that would begin to immediately address these concerns.”
Residents who live near the terminal complain of excessive noise from idle trains that they say make it almost impossible to sleep.
The NYMTC plans to create 10 so-called “regional growth areas” — two of them in Queens — that would support increased train traffic.
Hevesi called on the body to consider the problems facing residents, including increased noise, air quality and environmental issues, as it moves forward with a plan.
“While it is logical to assume that rail traffic will increase on these corridors as a result of this plan, mitigation of noise, health and environmental problems should be addressed in the present, not in the future, after the regional growth areas are established and traffic levels have increased,” the assemblyman said.
Hevesi also said trains that pass through the terminal are outdated.
“I believe that we should make every effort to use locomotives with technology that is the most efficient, has ?the cleanest emissions and operates? at the lowest decibel level,” he said. “In this way, we would be decreasing the amount of energy it takes to ship freight via rail, decreasing health risks associated with diesel emissions for those that breathe the air daily along the track and have the least noise impact possible in these residential neighborhoods.”
We read with interest your article “Hevesi wants barriers for Fresh Pond trains,” November 24th, and believe it is important to clarify some of the inaccuracies in the article.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) is the metropolitan planning organization for New York City, Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley. Comprised of members that include the New York State and New York City Departments of Transportation, New York City Department of City Planning, the MTA, and Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties, NYMTC is the conduit for federal transportation dollars that come to the region. Decisions about the use of those dollars are made by the member agencies. NYMTC is neither an operating agency nor a regulating authority, and as such cannot compel operators to do things like buy more technologically advanced locomotives that emit quieter noises. To further clarify, the desired growth areas that are noted in the article are not designed to bring additional rail freight into the region, but were selected by our member agencies as areas that can support additional development when coupled with strategic transportation investments. In Queens, Jamaica and Long Island City were identified as the two desired growth areas mentioned in the article.
We encourage New Yorkers to join us as we undertake the next update of our long term Regional Transportation Plan, with a 25 year horizon, including the freight planning component, and look forward to beginning additional outreach in the spring of 2012. We are continuing to work with elected officials and community organizations to see how the next Plan can help to address some of the issues that have been raised about rail freight, but want to be clear that these issues cannot be resolved at the NYMTC table, but rather by working with the operators and appropriate regulatory agencies.
For more information on NYMTC and to join our mailing list for e-newsletters, meeting announcements and for ways to get involved, please visit http://www.nymtc.org or http://www.facebook.com/NYMTC.
Sincerely,
Lisa Daglian
Public Information Officer
NYMTC