Noise, traffic backups, and propane: Residents speak out against Grafton & Upton Railroad

Cars banging together. Trains rumbling down the tracks. 

The horns. 

The horns. 

THE HORNS.

Residents who live near the Grafton & Upton Railroad depot had a lot of things to say about the impact the revitalization of the short-line rail and the 2018 opening of its propane facility has had on their lives.

In the case of the Brosnihan family, who live behind the train maintenance building, they dealt first with the facility’s construction, then with cars crashing together.

“It literally smashes into the next car… it causes a shockwave that literally goes through our yard,” Jackie Brosnihan said.

Once the leaves fall off the trees that screen their yard, lights at the rail yard flood their property, making it difficult to sleep at night, she added.

“This is truly affecting the value of my home and I’m sure it’s decreasing the value of my home,” she said.

The hearing was held on the request of the Environmental Protection Agency, which wanted to hear from Grafton residents about the impact the railroad has had on the community. 

The EPA is negotiating a settlement with the short-haul rail company for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act’s chemical accident prevention requirements, which include failure to file a risk management plan before opening its propane facility and questions about fire controls.

Those fire control questions resonated with Jeff Turgeon, who questioned prior to the opening of the facility if the water pumps would be enough to extinguish fires during the frigid winter months. 

He’s also expressing concern about the propane tanks — not the four giant storage tanks that prompted a failed town lawsuit, but the ones on the train cars themselves. They’re in the rail yard, but they’re also stored behind the Grafton Public Library.

“These things are littered all over our town,” Turgeon said. “A million gallons of liquid propane is sitting up here in North Grafton.”

Carmen Paglione, who lives at 8 Waterville Street, has been almost as vocal about railroad noise as the horns that blast as often as 40 times as trains are backed in and out of the intersection.

“Their rail yard is not large enough to accommodate all the cars,” said Paglione, 71, who has lived in his home his entire life. He said he sees traffic backed up almost daily in the morning, including police cars and ambulances.

“there used to be one track there. Now there are six,” he added. “This can’t be right. There’s people who just live a few feet away.”

Comments from the evening will be compiled and sent to the federal agency; written comments are due to TAoffice@ma-grafton.gov by 9 a.m. Friday.

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