United States
We’d like to hear your story about how railway noise and vibration has affected you, and your community. Tell us about the problems you’ve had – or are continuing to have – with railway noise and vibration. How has it affected you and your quality of life? We’d like to hear about your successes and frustrations in resolving your concerns, as well as hear what current conditions are like in your area.
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Blogs, Stories and Comments from US Residents…
- Chicago: Chicago based citizens formed the group “The Regional Answer to Canadian National“ (TRAC). Their mission is to “To educate citizens about Canadian National Railway’s proposed acquisition of the EJ&E Railway, and encourage opportunities to unite in opposition against this transaction.” View our posts CN Rail: There’s No Accounting For It and The Bottom Line on CN’s $250K Fine.
- New York: A group of citizens formed the group CURES. See their Facebook Group: Civics United for Railroad Environmental Solutions (CURES).
- Michigan: A resident comments on the post Bill C-587, The Railway Noise and Vibration Control Act.
- Gary, IN: See the post Communities in the News: The List Continues to Grow.
- St. Paul, MN: See the post Communities in the News: Health and Environmental Concerns Raised.
- Commerce, CA: See the post Communities in the News: Health and Environmental Concerns Raised.
- Commerce, CA: East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice.
Rail and Reason 
Here is a link to our Blog,Sustainable LakePark, Whitefish MT http://sustainablelakeparkneighborhood.blogspot.com/
We are working to mitigate the effects of BNSF’s increasing capacity in our neighborhood, city and along the pristine Whitefish Lake.
Thanks William, we’ve added your site to our growing list of communities; thank you for doing the same! We wish you the best in your conservation efforts, keep us informed as to your progress. The article about the impact of coal trains was of particualar interest to us.
Obviously this Jeff Willsie an idiot, I read the answer he gave “train Jane” and he sounds more like he belongs in a mail room rather than president of an international corporation ….. It’s pretty clear that this jerk does not live within a minimum of 2 miles of any train facility. So if I may suggest something that has been used with some success in this county with our politicians that have no idea what it is like to be awoken 3 or 4 times a night by that racket, we find out where they live and we drive by their homes with a portable air horn that small boats use for distress calls and give him (3 longs and a short) then tell him “it’s the queen getting her revenge”.
One thing I have learned is, you can’t reason with a moron all they understand is “in your face” within the law of course, nothing is ever solved by breaking the law, just bend it a little ……
All kidding aside, this is a very serious problem, not only for sleep depravation, but think of the hospitals and nursing homes, the sick babies whose’s mother has been up all night ………
Where I live their are four crossing, that,s 16 whistles and that does not take into quiet nights when we can hear as many as 7 crossings , nor does does it take into consideration when the engineer gets out on the wrong side of the bed or when he has a fight with his wife, than it’s 5 or 6 times per crossing.
Well that’s my story and i’m sticking to it …..good luck to all !!!!!
Chuck
Sleep deprivation and/or disruption for people living along rail corridors is a much-understated health concern, in our opinion.
The effect of noise pollution on human health is an area of growing understanding and research.
We believe that there needs to be a limit as to how much noise residents should be expected to tolerate in the course of railway operations.
Whistling is a separate problem onto itself. While we strongly support rail safety, whistling, at the volumes currently in use by the railway industry represents a significant intrusion into the homes of far too many people, affecting their sleep, productivity, and overall quality of life.
As for your political representatives, one way to educate them as to the severity of the problem is to send them short video clips that
make clear the level of disruption that your neighbourhood is being subjected to in the middle of the night.
That’s what happens when you don’t
‘proof read” what you write !!!!!
looks like suppression of comment and (free speech) is alive and well in Canada as well as the US ……. They deleted my supportive comments to “trainjane”
My wife almost lost her job because she fell asleep at work one day last week, (twice) because we get sometimes 5 trains through 4 crossings in a single nite, that’s 4 horns per crossing (at a minimum,) that’s 80 soundings in ONE nite. If she loses her job we have an attorney that will take our case, we may not win, but she told us that she will raise such a stink (while this case is pending) in the news media that our cowardly politicians will have to pay attention….. There must be a minimum of 350,000 people in Michigan alone within earshot of at least one RR crossing, and if that (Jeff Willsie) thinks I am just blowing smoke, he don’t know ME, because his name will be at the front of the list of defendants ……….
Mr. Potts, we agree with you that it’s time to start raising the profile of this issue. There has to be a better signalling system put into place for late night rail transportation in particular in both the U.S. and Canada. As rail traffic increases, under the present system, it’s only going to get worse.
Unfortunately, there are very few politicians, (if any) that live within earshot of these horns and it would be a very low priority with them. Who was the rocket scientist that came up with the idea of disrupting the lives of so many people, maybe we should start with him, get his home address and phone number and have a few people knock on his door or give him a phone call in the middle of the night as long as we’re awake anyway…..I don’t know, but it’s something to think about.
We do not have horns blowing, but do hear the loud sound of train engines passing by our house at all hours of the night and day. They built a second track and now we have double decker trains sitting behind our house for hours.
I live in Illinois where Canadian National Railroad bought the E J & E Railway. We used to have just a few trains a day. Now we have 20 – 25 trains per day. The trains are longer, heavier (more vibrations and louder) and come at all hours of the day and night, including holidays.
The STB approved of this disaster without consideration for the people who live near the track. Homeowners who sustain a financial loss on their homes because of this should be compensated by Canadian National Railway.
Any lawyers out there?
I take it that you are not situated in an area where CN installed noise mitigation. Is the problem continuing?