Eastern Railroad Discussion > M&E and NIMBYs

Reading the Trainorders newsclip about the M&E and their reactivation of slumbering rail lines over to Staten Island and how five municipalities are fighting them gives new meaning to NIMBYs. We now have NIMBY towns. Not In My Town (NIMTs)?

It is nice that Federal regulation controls railroading and not every silly local jurisdiction.

But then you hire a Washington lawyer to concoct cock-and-bull stories about disturbing the polluted environment by replacing railroad ties! Wow. How much is he getting paid?

Your right creosote is not harmful.

but

would YOU want this going on in your backyard?

>>would YOU want this going on in your backyard?


Confucious say one who buys house next to train track shall expect such things to happen.

NORAC Wrote:

> would YOU want this going on in your backyard?


Uhhhhh... Who was there first? The house or the railroad tracks? I'd say the tracks.

TOMT7X

I have tracks in my front yard. NS can maintain those tracks anyway they desire! Confucious was right, you buy a house by a railroad you just might expect that that someday there may be a train on those tracks.

Gonut

There are a bunch of issues the residents have brought up that should have been addressed by the County. Such as there was an agreement in place between the County and the municipalities that reactiviation would not occur without the blessing of each municipality. The County did not do this and contracted with M&E to reactivate.

Also the lines were legally abandoned. The state purchased them for future use supposedly for a rail to trails project. Then they sold to the County and now the lines are being reactivated. So some of these homeowners may have purchased their houses with an abandoned line in their backyard. Now a few years later it is being reopened. I think their response is only natural.

The loser in this right now is the M&E. Their name is on the trucks and engines and they will be the focus of the resident's animosity. The resident's should be focusing on how the County went against the original agreement and blame it on those politicians.

Chris V

TOMT7X Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NORAC Wrote:
>
> > would YOU want this going on in your
> backyard?
>
>
> Uhhhhh... Who was there first? The house or the
> railroad tracks? I'd say the tracks.
>
> TOMT7X
>
>


Yes....much like the folks who buy homes near airports then raise hell about the noise.

I'd love to have a railroad running past my yard. I could kick back on a chair and watch the trains. Preferably, it would be double track, heavy duty and CTC equipped.

A classic case for the benefits of eminent domain. Without it, no project, be it a road, dam, airport, railroad, you name it, would ever get built over the concern of a few cratchety old idiots. We would not have interstates, low-sulfer coal, oil pipelines, modern ports, the list could go on forever. However, in return for the priviledge of building the line, the M&E assumes the status of common carrier, which means they are obliged to haul all frieght tendered at a reasonable cost. They also assume quite a bit of liability and risk in the event of a derailment or hazmat spill, all for the prospect of turning a very modest profit on the freight business.

Perhaps the homeowners in this case would simply prefer their highways getting more crowded with big trucks. Who knows?

Each NIMBY situation needs to be evaluated on its own merits. Some complaints are ones most of us would agree with if we were the victims, while others are "yuppie-get-a-life" b.s. My late wife and I lost our home in Dayton, OH, to a secret road-project deal that not only destroyed the property value, but endangered our family members' lives on a daily basis. In Xenia, OH, my present wife and I had an under-the-table-deal commercial project dumped in our back yard that ruined our lives there. So....we moved to a small town, in which still another set of unexpected, inexcusable problems with "gubment" and low-life "citizens" has us looking to move yet again. So...., try to see each NIMBY episode in its own right, rather than dismissing all of them as bull.

I would suggest you read the exchange at the URL below.
The problem is not merely NIMBYism.

http://www.railroad.net/forums/messages.asp?TopicID=22027