Ms. Marilyn Mundy’s letter to the Sentinel is taking the Amtrak/tree issue to the edge of reality — so let’s review the facts about Amtrak and the tree cuttings. Amtrak’s very limited budget prevents it from trimming trees each year that grow and endanger their power lines. Amtrak’s only course of action to maintain safety is to eliminate all growth that would eventually endanger their power lines.
As far as using herbicides by the roadbed, this is a common practice on railroads along their right of way to control growth that would eventually endanger the roadbed. This practice will continue to be widely used long after Ms. Mundy and I have departed Metuchen for undetermined destinations. Ms. Mundy wrongly claims “noise level has increased well beyond the intermittent noise decibels allowable.” Allowable by whom?
If anything, the current operations without the trees are much quieter than they were in past years, when NJ Transit was running several diesel trains a day, stopping in Metuchen, and Conrail was using the corridor, or a main line freight railroad with diesel power. The electric trains are very quiet (almost too quiet for safety), and only blow their horns briefly as they approach the platforms as required by federal law. Even though I live on the wrong side of the tracks (east of the corridor), I can hear the Conrail freight trains west of us (in Edison) just as well as I can hear the corridor trains (should I complain?)
The “previously hidden” high-tension wires are part of a masterful infrastructure that we should admire as it has served us well over the last 70 years. But it is old, and needs to be rebuilt (and this for sure will be fodder some NIMBY reactions.)
“Annihilation of the wildlife” — Where was Ms. Mundy’s bird counting when the beautifully wooded block thick with trees, undergrowth and wildlife at High Street and Lake Street (opposite the ‘Y’) was leveled and forsaken for several million dollar big-box homes?
This whole issue needs a reality check — otherwise we might turn on our television to find a National Geographic Special documenting Metuchen’s wildlife destruction at the hands of Amtrak.
Metuchen is a railroad town. If you like to watch trains, hear trains, and take in the whole railroad environment as I do as a longtime resident, Metuchen is a great place to live. If you don’t like trains, there are other choices.
John Barr
Metuchen