Train noises ‘nature of the beast,’ says Conrail Sewaren residents say noise from train couplings has gotten worse, not better BY COLLEEN LUTOLF Staff Writer WOODBRIDGE — Sewaren resident Candy Darling drove by a press conference held by Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski’s office last week on Woodbridge Avenue to see what was going on. Conrail was fixing the railroad crossing on Woodbridge Avenue, which closed a portion of the road leading to the waterfront. She was pleased. “They’re pretty good at keeping stuff up,” the Holton Street resident said. “It’s an inconvenience, but it’s gotta be done.” But she wants local officials to focus their attention on another issue facing Sewaren residents — the loud noises that residents say mimic explosions when the railcars connect or couple. “The noise from the trains is worse than this little bit of inconvenience,” Darling said. “My big complaint is hearing the trains. I thought they were supposed to stop that. It’s ridiculous. They’ve gotta stop it.” One of Darling’s Holton Street neighbors, Isabelle Klopsch, said last October that Conrail and Motiva representatives assured her and other Sewaren residents who live only a few yards from the tracks that a Motiva expansion project would alleviate the daily “explosions” of sound issuing from the coupling trains. “The noise increase the residents are complaining about will reverse itself,” Conrail representative John Enright said last October. Klopsch said the noise did decrease — but now it’s back. “The noise is unbelievable again,” Klopsch said in April. “It’s 10 times worse than it was. Now we’re getting to the point where some neighbors are up in arms. Some of their walls have cracked.” The tanker cars are Motiva-owned, but the coupling process, known as “drilling,” is conducted by Conrail engineers. “I don’t know how fast they have to go to connect,” she said. “You’d think they would slow down a little, but by the time the train gets to couple — vaboom!” Conrail train master Robert Krushewsky said last week the sounds accompanied by drilling have not changed — but they will become more frequent. Currently, Motiva moves about 80 cars of ethanol a day, he said. Production will increase once a federal mandate requiring ethanol be used in gasoline is implemented. “Once that happens, production is really, really going to increase,” he said. “We do a lot less at night. We curtailed it trying to help residents, but this is a busy place at night. We’re pretty much locked into the schedules we have. Tell Motiva we won’t drill anymore at night and see how fast they get on the phone.” The once-a-night drill takes about one hour and 15 minutes, Krushewsky said. “The train handling hasn’t changed,” he said. “I don’t want to say anything that’s going to upset anyone but it’s the nature of the beast — living near the railroad tracks.” About 10 Sewaren residents, including Klopsch, met with Ward 1 Councilman Charles Kenny in April to discuss the problem.Since then, they have sat down with Motiva, Conrail and Norfolk-Southern representatives, East Avenue resident Christine DeLisi said. DeLisi has become the residents’ unofficial spokeswoman. “We did have a meeting with them,” she said. “We’d really like to give them a chance. They are trying to help us. They know what we want.” Kenny, who sat in on both meetings, said Conrail will investigate the residents’ complaints. “They’re going to see if the coupling is done at the right speeds and clean up along the tracks,” he said. A second meeting with local and corporate officials will occur, but DeLisi has not yet been given a date for that meeting.