Late-night noise from South Coast Rail, especially at the layover facility in Fall River, is depriving people of sleep and damaging their quality of life, neighbors said at a meeting in the city last night.
Residents who live near the idling diesel trains at the facility said they are experiencing loud noise, vibration, and fumes.
Sometimes four trains are sitting in layover, and noise continues long into the night, said neighbor Ollie Jay Spears.
“Twelve o'clock at night, all four trains are running, all night until two in the morning, until I fall asleep,” he said. “Then, I wake up at four in the morning, so I'm sleeping, like, two hours.”
Another nearby resident, Jean Powell, said people in the neighborhood are bearing an unfair burden.
“This level of noise is an active injury to my health, to my work, and to my home,” she said. “This is also — and this is an important point — a disproportionate burden on all of us in the perimeter of the layover facility.”
Neighbor Richard Santos said the community was promised that trains would idle no longer than one hour, but frequent inspection and maintenance can make the idling time last four hours.
Others complained about train horns, rats at the layover facility, the invasion of privacy when train riders see into their backyards, and a train arriving from Boston almost an hour late.
About 100 people attended the meeting at Morton Middle School.
Officials from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority hosted the meeting, and the contractor that operates the commuter rail, Keolis, was on hand to answer questions.
Phil Eng, MBTA general manager, said noise from layover facilities is a problem for the railroad industry.
“We want to regain your trust, and we want to show you, through action, that we're going to do what we can to address all of these concerns,” he said. “Again, I don't know how quick they will all be, but I assure you that we will show some action and we're going to really take all of this to heart.”
Jennifer Vincent, a member of the Berkley Board of Selectmen, said she rose to speak to offer hope to people experiencing problems.
In Berkley, it seemed like train horns were blowing the whole time the train was in town, because the small community has four railroad crossings, she said. Within six weeks of holding a public forum with the MBTA, she said, “we had relief from the noise at two of our crossings.”
Eng pledged to return to Fall River and speak with the community again, after the MBTA has a chance to make some changes.
