Residents complaining about noise in the wee hours of the morning along New York & Atlantic Railway’s tracks will have some relief from the screeching of train brakes, but concerns about smells, pollution and vermin are lingering.
CSX Freight Corporation trains use the tracks that cut through Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth and Middle Village to haul garbage, and for months, residents have complained about noise and smells from a switching station near 69th Place and Juniper Boulevard South.
That station, where trains noisily charge their brakes while they idle, will move a few hundred feet south, away from the residential area and toward the All Faiths Cemetery.
However, residents at the Juniper Parks Civic Association meeting Thursday night made it clear that this wasn’t the end of the problem.
Complaints abounded about pollution, smells and an influx of rats and raccoons from the increasing number of freight and garbage trains using the tracks.
“This is a positive step and hopefully will alleviate some of the noise to the homeowners in that area; however, much more needs to be done to deal with the increased rail shipments through our neighborhood,” Robert Holden, JCPA’s president, said in a statement.
A coalition of four elected officials — Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-Woodhaven), Senator Joe Addabbo (D-Howard Beach), Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village) and Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) — teamed up with Citizens United for Railroad Environmental Solutions to get the switching point moved.
However, at the JPCA meeting, Hevesi, said that broader support is now needed. He explained that trains on these tracks increase as CSX and the Department of Sanitation try to move away from using trucks.
“Now that we have a little bit of positive movement on the local issue, we’ve got to go bigger because this is a citywide issue,” Hevesi said. “Because there’s going to be serious consequences if we see a huge up-tick of the amount of freight trains and garbage trains coming through our neighborhood.”
Hevesi said the next step is contacting every state official, and meeting with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health to drum up support.
By Jeremiah Dobruck