'People Need To Be Able To Sleep': Desperate Town Silences The Horns

WAKEFIELD, MA — Eight days of blaring train horns — and relentless public outcry — has overcome a year of attempts to reopen Broadway Crossing.

So the crossing will once again be closed.

Wakefield Town Council voted unanimously Monday night to close Broadway Crossing just over a week after voting to reopen it, citing the significant quality of life impact nonstop train horns have had on the public — and on the councilors themselves.

Wakefield is still waiting on the Federal Railroad Administration's final approval of reinstating the town's Quiet Zone status. But it'll be waiting without the train horns — and without access across the Broadway Crossing.

An FRA manager said it could take another three or four days to get the word across to all the MBTA and freight trains, so the horns won't stop immediately.

Still, it's major victory for those who have suffered through sleepless nights due to the barrage of noise ever since Broadway reopened.

"People need to be able to sleep, people need to go on with their lives," Councilor Ed Dombrowski said before being the councilor who bit the bullet and brought the closure to vote. "After eight days of this, the public outcry has been too loud."

Indeed, councilors were inundated with complaints that far outnumbered the traffic-related ones they've received in the year Broadway Crossing was closed. Some resident calls were starting as early as 5 a.m. — later, still, than the horns were beginning to sound.

"I want to make it clear I am not changing my vote based on the borderline threatening emails, some of the snarky emails," Councilor Ann Santos said. "... I'm changing my vote because the horns are much louder than I thought they were, they are much more consistent than I thought they were."

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The council had voted to reopen Broadway earlier this month with an understanding that horns would blast at all six of the town's crossings for about five weeks while the FRA finalized approval for its Quiet Zone status — actually, a "pre-rule" Quiet Zone status Wakefield was grandfathered in to. The pre-rule status has lower standards that won't require far lengthier — and very expensive — crossing upgrades.

But officials Monday blamed feet-dragging bureaucracy at the FRA as to why the horns couldn't be allowed to continue. A new timeline still sat at five weeks — no progress from last week's timeline — and contained no guarantee the feds would run it up the proper ladders in time. A potential looming government shutdown slammed shut any hope of continuing Broadway's reopening.

"Basically all we can do on our end is make phone calls and try to move this along," Lou Frangella, a grade crossing specialist for the Federal Railroad Administration, said.

The council had opened Broadway to alleviate the traffic concerns for long-suffering residents, especially as school reopened.

"Why would we take the risk of allowing train horns to begin blaring, at which point we're essentially hurting our entire town, not just the residents of Broadway or the businesses that are impacted?" asked resident Andrew McCarthy.

Another resident who lives near the tracks said one recent day the horns bellowed at 2:16, 5:09, 5:41, 6:14, 6:18, 6:58, 7:04. That's a.m.

"I think this decision is detrimental to the public health," Robin Milinazzo said, alluding to the initial call to reopen Broadway and unleash the horns.

Related: Wakefield Train Situation A Big Beepin' Mess