Open letter to city council,
Something seriously needs to be done to address the train horn blasts in the middle of the night from trains travelling across an uncontrolled crossings in southeast Richmond.
While I understand that federal transportation regulations require train engineers to signal with a horn blast at uncontrolled road crossings, the situation in southeast Richmond requires action.
The horn blasts are not the result of irregular or scheduled crossings at a specific location, but due to middle of the night shunting across an uncontrolled (non-barrier) road crossing.
They ring out the entire night and early morning, disturbing the sleep of not only the residents in the immediate vicinity - Hamilton and East Richmond - but can also be heard in West Richmond during the dead of night.
I am not writing about an ad hoc horn blast, but the continuous sounding of the horn as trains cross back and forth. It seems the obvious thing to do is to have controlled crossings installed.
While a controlled crossing might not have been thought necessary when there were fewer residents in East Richmond, the increasing population growth and density in the area warrants action and city council would be wise to heed the concerns of the area's residents.
The present situation is totally unacceptable. I look forward to the city's immediate response to this matter.
Mark Salopek Richmond
