(The following story by Kit Kadlec appeared on the Daily News Transcript website on July 21.)
NEEDHAM, Mass. — Few residents ever know the hidden contents of the sealed freight railcars creaking by, usually late at night, passing thousands of area homes.
U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-7th, wants that secrecy changed. He has recently pushed for more disclosure and notification to local officials of trains carrying hazardous waste, fearing a disaster if such a cargo ever spilled.
But residents have nothing to fear locally, according to CSX trainmaster Art Scott, who helps oversee the Readville, Walpole and Middleboro depots. Scott said no hazardous materials ever pass through the freight tracks in Dedham, Norwood and Walpole along the Northeast Rail Corridor.
Due to the fact commuter rail lines for Amtrak’s Acela trains coming from Washington D.C. to Boston run along the same tracks as the freight cars locally, no hazardous materials would likely ever be approved to go down the same route, Scott said.
Dedham Health Director Frank Scurti confirmed he has never heard of any dangerous materials such as chlorine, radioactive materials or flammable liquids ever being transported through the town to or from Boston.
Instead, Scott said freight trains making local stops carry cargoes with items such as Mexican beer, Midwestern grain and Canadian lumber. And the shipments often come from as far as the Pacific Northwest forests or a Corona brewery in Mexico, he said.
The local destinations for the Canadian wood include a Home Depot distribution center off University Avenue in Norwood and numerous other smaller lumber companies nearby. There’s also an auto parts center off the same stretch of tracks servicing General Motors.
And Scott said there are countless other shipments passing by the area via train, such as paper rolls for the Boston Globe, steel for the Big Dig, sand for a Milford company that makes Budweiser beer bottles, shingles that go to CertainTeed Roofing in Norwood, and frozen fish for local grocery markets.
Scott said people who complain about the noise and appearance of the rail line, which he said has existed since the late 1800s, don’t understand its continued importance to supplying markets and providing local jobs at distribution centers.
“I tell people, ‘If the railroad wasn’t here, you’d have nothing in your stores,’ ” he said. “One way or another, we handle everything.”
Scott has been working in the freight rail business for 32 years locally, when the line was first owned by Penn Central Transportation Company. That went bankrupt in 1975, at which point the U.S. government bought it and four other railroad companies to form the Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail), which soon after went public. Five years ago, the company was then bought by CSX.
No matter how many companies come to own the railroad, and despite competition from trucks, Scott said he’s confident that freight transportation on the tracks will prosper for years to come.
“Until they come up with a teletransporter beam, like the one on Star Trek, I see the rail business continuing to go on for a long time,” he said.
CSX data from 2002 showed that the rail company on an average year transported 4.2 million tons of rail freight in Massachusetts. That removed approximately 186,000 trucks from the highways and streets, CSX said.
But the rail business also has seen major changes lately to remain profitable.
Once filled with more than 60 employees, the Readville station used to be a lot more crowded with dozens of busy clerks scurrying around. Now that cars have tags on their sides for electric scanning and GPS systems track the overall progress of the trains, such employees are unnecessary. Scott said there’s now just 15 employees under his watch.
Locomotive engineer Dick James, who has worked on the Readville and Norwood tracks for 37 years, said he’s noticed a lot more surveillance and focus on time-saving.
“It’s not as exciting as it used to be,” he said, noting the fewer co-workers around him now. “And there’s a lot more eyes upon us.”
Some of the recent changes to the local rail line have made nearby residents happier, though.
In October, the MBTA has plans to construct a 1,500-foot-long sound wall along the tracks in Dedham’s Manor neighborhood. Residents had been complaining for years of the loud noises from freight trains connecting late at night.
Residents were also relieved to see toxins along the line, including lead and arsenic, recently cleaned up by the MBTA, the current rail yard property owner. Scurti said the chemicals were the result of a past practice of spraying the cars near the Dedham-Readville line.
And in Walpole, concerned residents convinced town officials to prevent a proposed rail-based trash transfer station from setting up shop along South Street last year.
Local residents clearly don’t like the noise and other effects that trains bring, but Scott said the train line has been there longer, and will continue to remain part of local life for years to come, whether neighbors like it or not.
“If there was no railroad, you’d have no freight,” he said.