Wakefield Broadway Crossing: Local Leaders Celebrate Federal Funding

WAKEFIELD, MA - Federal money is coming to Wakefield’s Broadway rail crossing.

For town officials and area residents wary of blaring train horns, that money is a welcome step in ensuring Wakefield maintains its “quiet zone” status allowing trains to pass without sounding their horns.

“None of us want to do that again,” Town Administrator Stephen Maio said of the horns and Wakefield's experience with them in a Town Council meeting on Monday.

Congress green-lit a $1.2 million earmark for the train crossing work as part of a larger spending bill in March. The funds will help pay to design and construct new gates as well as a set of Americans With Disabilities Act compliant pedestrian enhancements around the train crossing.

Wakefield previously had quiet zone status with the Broadway crossing open. That changed in 2020, though, when planned National Grid and municipal work temporarily closed the crossing. Federal regulators then told the town that it could not reopen the crossing without giving up quiet zone status.

The town reached an agreement with the Federal Railroad Administration to reopen the crossing last September. Town officials braced for train horns in the area, though they anticipated regaining a form of quiet zone status after about five weeks.

The Town Council opted to close the crossing again roughly a week later, however, following massive public outcry about train horns.

Months later, the crossing has reopened again. The train horns have gone quiet. But officials say Wakefield still needs to make improvements to ensure it doesn't lose its quiet zone status again when the Federal Railroad Administration conducts a scheduled review in about three years.

Rep. Seth Moulton was in town to highlight the Broadway project on Tuesday, visiting with state and local leaders for a tour of the site.

“People don’t need to listen to train horns all day long,” Moulton said after the tour. “There are simple things that we can do to make a crossing quiet. But it takes money. And it takes coordination.”

Flanked by state and local leaders, Moulten praised this funding process as “an amazing example of federal, state and local partnership.”

While the $1.2 million earmark is bolstering the project, Wakefield is contributing some of its own funds, with town meeting approving $400,000 in spending back in November.

Starting his day in Wakefield on Tuesday, Moulton went on to make a scheduled appearance in Reading to highlight a stormwater project there that is also in line to receive federal funding.

Moulton was then back in Wakefield on Tuesday afternoon for a tour of the Boys & Girls Club of Wakefield, where a pending federal earmark would help fund a new career center, science lab and maker space.