By Charles Naftal
This abuse has been going on for years now and it must end now so Mineola residents can have a quality of life. The Long Island Rail Road must follow the guidelines set down by The Federal Railway Administration of sounding their horns at railway grade crossings. Except that this rule was not thought out properly and only constantly hurts the residents who live nearby to the tracks.
Presently, in Mineola, there are eight at-grade crossings that are only about one half-mile from the first to the last. The Willis Avenue crossing is 150 feet from The Second Street crossing but The LIRR still sounds their horns four times at each crossing. Some engineers are fine because they respect the residents and don’t “kill” us by blowing at full volume. Others though think it’s a big joke to sound the horn at the maximum level.
The Federal Railway Administration requires the oncoming train to sound its horn four times at each crossing [long, long, short, long]. At present, there are approximately 150 trains that pass through and/or stop in Mineola and if you do the math, that’s about 4,800 horn blasts per day. Someone has to live near the tracks due to the density of population on Long Island, thus making for a limited quality-of-life because of this brutality.
Whenever any LIRR gates are down the traffic light on Willis Avenue and Second Street turns red causing a complete traffic mess from Old Country Road on the south of the tracks to Jericho Turnpike on the north side of the tracks especially during “rush hour.” I would like you to note that the county seat is located right nearby and traffic volume is high all the time. I would also like you to note that Willis Avenue is a major north/south route so the motorist might have to wait for a couple of traffic light changes in order to cross the tracks provided another train doesn’t come first.
The same traffic mess occurs when the gates are down for The Oyster Bay branch—not just the main line. The Oyster Bay train is only traveling at about five miles per hour from Willis to Second Street. So why should they blow the horn at all? There must be another alternative such as flashing the train lights during the dark hours.
I sat down with the prior mayor, Jack Martins, and made a presentation of Wayside Horns that only affect the traffic at the crossing and not the nearby residents. I gave him a large amount of literature regarding the Wayside Horns but he never did anything regarding them and/or the quality of life for the residents.
Aren’t the residents supposed to have a quality of life also? Why is it only the commuters?
