(The following story by Meredith Goldstein appeared on the Boston Globe website on February 5.)
BOSTON — The sound in question isn’t just a humming. It’s a rumbling, a vibrating force powerful enough to cause cracks in Mary Zappala’s walls and ceiling.
Bert Lacerte, Zappala’s neighbor in Haverhill, describes it as the sound of a running motorcycle right next to your car.
“Our homes have become a prison,” Lacerte said. “We have to close them up as tight as possible.”
For more than 15 years, residents in the Bradford section of Haverhill who live close to the commuter rail stop at the intersection of Railroad and Laurel avenues have coped with the sound of idling trains. The trains start idling at about 4:30 a.m. to warm up for the morning commute. They idle at night, usually until midnight or later, to cool down after the last drop-off.
During the extreme heat of the summer and the deep chill of the winter, the trains run all night, sometimes all weekend, so the MBTA can keep the engines at the right temperature. When the trains are at their least intrusive, Zappala says she gets about four hours of good sleep a night. At times, she drives to her sister’s house to have a few hours of rest without interruption.
“When are we supposed to sleep?” she said. “When are we supposed to rest?”
Last week, Zappala met with Haverhill Mayor James J. Fiorentini, local legislators, and representatives of the MBTA and the state Department of Environmental Protection to talk about the idling trains. The meeting was set up by state Representative Barbara L’Italien, who noticed a flier created by Lacerte that told Bradford area residents whom to call to complain about the noise.
For L’Italien, the train noise is a new issue. But for Bradford residents and officials at the local and state level, it’s an old matter. Zappala and her neighbors have met with city and state leaders for years with no success in better regulating the idling of trains or moving the layover station, where trains are parked overnight, away from the residential neighborhood.
Zappala has several large binders filled with letters from legislators and city councilors from the late 1980s and early 1990s, and studies paid for by the state that show the sound levels are inappropriate for a residential area. So far, nothing has been done.
“Every time we have a meeting, we get new faces and new rules,” Zappala said.
Commuter rail trains never bothered the Bradford residents much until the station became a layover stop for the MBTA. Zappala said that in the mid 1980s, without any notice from the state, trains remained at the Bradford stop all night instead of returning to the former layover location near Hale Street.
In the summer, Zappala and her neighbors kept their windows shut because of the fumes. Abutters and those up the hill from the station got used to the 4:30 a.m. wake-ups and the midnight rumblings.
Almost two decades after the first complaints were made, those who gathered at City Hall last week looked to make some compromises. MBTA representatives, including Anna Barry, director of railroad operations, said the state will begin testing the trains during cold temperatures to find out whether sensitive equipment can function in extreme cold without idling all night.
As of now, the station keeps the trains running through the night if it is below 10 degrees outside. Because of the extreme cold this winter, the neighbors have had several full weekends of the noise and fumes.
Zappala also asked about changing the location of the layover stop to a less residential area. She said that at a similar meeting years ago, she was told by MBTA representatives that sending the trains back to Boston to idle might be a possibility.
“I don’t know who made that commitment, but I do know that that has not been a feasible option,” Barry said. “Moving the equipment simply means moving the problem.”
Much of the discussion focused on the length of idling time, but those who live near the stop maintain that on the best days, there is only four hours of quiet during the night. State Senator Stephen A. Baddour said changing the location of the layover should be a priority. He asked about the possibility of a new stop near the Lucent Technology building in North Andover, and whether the trains could idle near the industrial building.
Barry said a Lucent train stop or layover stop may be an option, but for now, there are no plans to move the layover.
Residents who attended the meeting at City Hall were assured of some results. The DEP on Friday took the first action against the MBTA that requires changes.
Tom Natario, a DEP environmental engineer, gave Barry and the other MBTA representatives an order of noncompliance that demands that they make some plan for progress within 60 days.
Natario said the order demands that the MBTA use the 1992 study, which listed options for mitigating the noise and pollution problems, to determine what can be done to improve the situation for neighbors quickly. The study listed options such as building a train barn and replacing old equipment. “Those things were never done,” Natario said.
Zappala and Lacerte said they were pleased with the DEP’s action, but are skeptical that this meeting will end in results. They said they can only hope that this round of discussions with new officials will be more successful.
“Locomotives are taking precedence to human beings and it’s intolerable at this point,” Zappala said.