With Amtrak working on the railroad tracks near his house, Steve Ives said he’s lived for months with noise and blinding light filling his bedroom at night. Now local, state, and federal officials are teaming up to ask Amtrak to answer to Ives’ complaints.
Ives was one of three neighbors who turned up Wednesday at a press conference near the corner of East Grand Avenue and Russell Street, where elected officials decried inaction and unresponsiveness by Amtrak. They called for remediation of noise and light pollution caused by Amtrak night work.
The conference included State Sen. Martin Looney, State Rep. Robert Megna, Mayor John Destefano, Alderwoman Maureen O’Sullivan-Best, and a representative from U.S. Rep. Rosa Delauro’s office
“We can’t sleep at night,” said Ives, who lives on East Grand Avenue with his girlfriend Deborah Hilton.
The trouble started in December, he said. That’s when Amtrak started clearing the trees next to the track (pictured) behind his house. Ives said he was told the work could only happen at night, since too many trains pass by during the day. Chainsaws were going all night long, he said.
But Amtrak workers didn’t stop at cutting trees, Hilton said. They pulled the stumps out, causing a rockslide, she said. Hilton said she can’t imagine why they didn’t see that coming as a result of stump removal. “What engineer doesn’t know that?”
Since May, Amtrak workers have been laboring at night to stabilize the banks that lead down to the tracks. Clifford Cole, a spokesman for Amtrak, said the work wasn’t planned ahead of time. He said he didn’t know what caused the need for rock stabilization.
Six overnights a week, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., Hilton and Ives hear generators, compressors, drilling, yelling, hammers, saws, trucks backing up, and high-pitched squealing, they said. Work lights shine into their bedroom window.
Ives and Hilton said they’ve called Amtrak repeatedly, as well as the offices of U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro. They’ve been hung up on and gotten “the runaround,” Hilton said.
“We’ve been complaining for a couple weeks,” said Al Ciastko, who lives on Russel Street.
He and Ives and Hilton said they recognize that the work is necessary. They said they would like Amtrak to work on it during the day, or around the clock until it’s done.
“It’s unbearable, it really is,” said Ciastko, as he stood with Mayor John DeStefano on Russell Street.
Hilton said the noise and disturbance is “obnoxious” and “obscene” and “ungodly.” Turning to Mayor DeStefano, she asked him for a date by which he would force Amtrak to change its ways.
“I can’t make Amtrak do anything,” DeStefano said.
New Haven is an “urban center,” which means trains come through town, he said. But Amtrak should communicate with the city and work to remedy the problem, DeStefano said. He said Amtrak has been unresponsive to communication attempts from his office.
“Just be a reasonable neighbor,” he said. “Talk to us.”
Lou Mangini, a representative of DeLauro’s office, read a letter that DeLauro sent to Amtrak on May 25. She made three requests: a meeting between Amtrak and the neighborhood, new rules to reduce noise as much as possible, and a list and timeline of “mitigation projects.”
Mangini said later that Amtrak responded to the letter but had not yet addressed DeLauro’s three requests.
New Haven State Rep. Robert Megna said he called Amtrak and had not yet heard from the company. He said he is shocked that a “quasi-public organization doesn’t even really respond when asked for basic consideration.”
Hilton (pictured) pressed Mayor DeStefano to take firm action against Amtrak. “You’ve got to put them against the wall,” she said, pushing against a utility pole for emphasis.
DeStefano said the city will communicate with Amtrak. “Making something happen is different.”
After the press conference, Ives said he was still unsatisfied.
“I’m beyond angry,” he said.
He was disappointed that the result of the press conference was a call for a meeting. “A meeting is not acceptable.”
“What I heard is the same song and dance,” he said. “I continue to lose sleep.”
In a written statement, Amtrak apologized for “any inconvenience as a result of the rock stabilization work currently underway in New Haven.”
Spokesman Cole said stabilization work during the daytime is impossible. The disruption of train service that would result would inconvenience far more people than are affected by the night work, he said.
Amtrak is trying to control the light and the noise, Cole said. “Our engineering department has taken steps to mitigate the noise and light issues associated with the project, utilizing state-of-the-art equipment to accomplish this goal,” said the written statement from Amtrak.
Asked about the charge that Amtrak has been unresponsive, Cole said, “That’s not true.” He said Amtrak has been in communication with government officials.
Cole said a meeting with neighbors is “a possibility.”
“I can’t say for sure it will happen,” he said.
I just wish that this meeting had happened during a time in which more neighbors could come out to address their concerns. The lights and the noise on the tracks is one thing, what about the destruction of property on Russel Street? What was the purpose of cutting down trees around the brick Amtrak buildings and then putting a metal guard rail alongside the road like a highway. Russel Street is quaint and many people jog on the grassy area on the side of the road (because there is no sidewalk and now, there never will be with the obscene guardrails) or they walk with their families on their way to Quarry Park. We want an explanation.