"I almost ran right into the path of a train this morning!" (5th UPDATE)

Concern Escalates Over Railroad Crossing Gates Malfunction and Safety Issues
 
Story and Photos by Paula Antolini
(5th Update Report)

In my continuing series about the Metro-North crossing gates malfunction, I've gathered input from Bethel and Danbury residents and also town officials, as well as MTA officials in my past reports.

The conversation about the danger lurking in malfunctioning railroad crossing gates and signal lights, on the Danbury line of Metro North in particular, is now all over social media with many local residents indicating their extreme concern about this situation. Numerous people feel that something needs to be done to correct this ongoing problem and they are starting to voice their concerns to town or railroad officials and police too.

Whether residents have had direct experience with malfunctioning railroad equipment as they approached the railroad crossing in their own vehicle, or they have witnessed malfunctions by viewing railroad crossing malfunctions from a window in their home, it is equally frustrating to them that this is happening at all and they are demanding answers from authorities.

Bethel resident Lori Krisher was with her husband and 4-year-old son recently, on their way home from picking their son up at preschool, as they were traveling towards the Greenwood Avenue railroad crossing in Bethel at 11:45 a.m.  Krisher said, "I almost ran right into the path of a train this morning! No flashing lights, gates up and the train was NOT blowing the horn. I was so focused on making the light, I didn't even see the train stopped there, and would've kept on going had my husband not said something! This is a tragedy waiting to happen! I saw the latest update, it said there was supposed to be someone actually walking across the tracks to check for safety but there was no one doing that today."

Krisher took it upon herself to contact NBC Connecticut who then came to Bethel recently and produced a short video report regarding the crossing gates at Greenwood Avenue in Bethel. However, although the report by Amanda Raus mentioned that MTA authorities are aware of the problem and have worked on the signal system, it did not address the immediate problem of the traffic flow on the roads which is NOT being addressed to the satisfaction of most residents.  It also incorrectly stated that railroad work was completed last November 2013, which is in direct opposition to what MTA Media Relations Representative Aaron Donovan told me in December 2013 and early January 2014, when he stated, "At the behest of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, we are overhauling the signal system on the Danbury Branch….The whole branch is being modernized, the Danbury Branch is quite old, as you know, the signal system is being modernized, and when the work is done, A) work related issues will stop, like the one on October 5th, and B) we'll have a more robust stronger system that can function, brand new."  And, the official name of the repair and upgrading work presently being done is called the "Danbury Branch Signalization Project" according to Donovan. (See more info. in my 3rd update story here.)

Also, the one resident and Bethel business owner, John Caprio, interviewed on camera in the Raus report, said the "problems" happen "only once in a while" which is his opinion based on "what technology is used," but is not the actual case. Numerous gate malfunction incidents have happened locally, documented by police reports where residents have complained, and also on record with the MTA.  (See my past report here.)  Understand that not all residents report gate malfunctions, as suggested by the many other incidents chatted about on social media, where stories abound of personal experiences, so those numbers are a lot higher than presently on record.

As it stands now, there is a stop and warn protocol in place by the MTA where a train must stop at the train crossings when the gates have not automatically gone down.  According to MTA Media Relations Representative Aaron Donovan, "The conductors would stop the train and come out and warn traffic ahead of time and the train would inch through the stop."  There have also been cases where the crossing gates remain down, and in that case police are usually called to the scene to direct traffic until MTA repairmen can arrive to fix the problem. (See my original report here.)

Although there is this stop and warn protocol in place by the MTA, local residents say that the problem also lies in the traffic flow to that Greenwood Avenue intersection and all other similar intersections, along the Metro-North Danbury line. Automobile drivers have indicated that they are not aware of a stopped train until the car is just about crossing the tracks and they are then shocked to see the large train a few feet from them, suddenly. This causes them to stop their vehicle quickly (as previously mentioned in the experience of Lori Krisher, for example).  Then other cars, not expecting a stopped vehicle in the middle of the road, also stop suddenly, possibly causing a collision with more cars approaching from behind. This is especially a concern with parents that know their child's school bus crosses train tracks. There are also cases where an automobile driver sees a car stopped and they go around the car, again then coming upon the stopped train on the tracks by surprise, previously out of view by the blocked car.

Danbury resident Bianca Souto Perrone witnessed crossing gate malfunctions in a view from the window of her home. "I live directly across from the South Street/Great Pasture crossing and it has been malfunctioning since October I would say, maybe even late September. We are so accustomed to how irritating it is, it's almost as if we tuned it out. Thank you for all those who have made officials aware of this problem. It could wind up in a potential dangerous situation. For now, its a huge nuisance to those who live by it...hence the 'tuning it out part.' Fingers crossed it will be fixed soon."

Souto Perrone also said, "Just witnessed from my window, a train passing. This is what happened: Train operator slowed down and stopped before approach of train, traveling Northbound towards Danbury. The signal gates descended AFTER he stopped. So it appears the operator of the train is aware of the problem since he is stopping ahead of time and blowing his horn several times. Then he passed safely over the tracks. The gates not being in sync with the trains approach is a problem....what happens if this was the nighttime?…Sad to say it would take a fatal situation to get attention. But we can still try."

Some of the residents have suggested it would be a good idea to put on your emergency flasher lights when slowing down at railroad crossings, and have started doing so.

I personally spoke with both Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker and Danbury Mayor Boughton on February 11, 2014, about the crossing gates malfunction issue. See interviews below.

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INTERVIEW WITH BETHEL FIRST SELECTMAN MATT KNICKERBOCKER

I gave First Selectman Knickerbocker a recap of the ongoing gates malfunction situation regarding the Metro-North Danbury line, especially concerning Bethel and Danbury crossings.  I mentioned that the situation of concern is escalating on social media with local residents, and asked Knickerbocker if he's done anything to resolve this issue.  He said, "I have been speaking with the railroad, well, Metro-North officials and our Police Department.  I'm also leaving it up to the police to coordinate. The police are occasionally out at our crossing gates, but the last few days it's not been necessary.  What I've been told is that Metro North is on a, oh shoot I can't remember what they call it, they have a phrase for it, but basically the engineer has to come to a full stop at every intersection and then proceed with caution across there, and if the gate does not come down, what I've noticed, I've been out to look at a few, as they come through town, and what I've noticed is that the train will come to a full stop, a few feet short of the intersection. It'll sit there for about 5 seconds, then the gate is activated, and apparently the system is so weak that it's not picking up the fact that the train is coming from farther away.  So if the gate goes down they'll wait another 10 or 15 seconds, then they will proceed slowly through the intersection once the gates are fully down and they ascertain that nobody is driving around it.  If the gate does not come down the conductor has to get out of the train and direct traffic."

I indicated that this is exactly what is scaring people, that they are driving down the road and suddenly see a train on the tracks as they are upon the tracks or close to them, which is a bit shocking to them, because you can't really tell immediately if the train is moving or not.  Knickerbocker said, "Well I'll tell you what, I drove across the tracks just yesterday and it scared the bejesus out of me right there.  I was coming into town from the Danbury direction, and I had moved into the left lane to turn left at Library Place, and there was a line of cars and a box truck blocking my view to the right, and there was a van sitting right in front of the railroad crossing."  Knickerbocker said that when he drove across the tracks after going around the van, "I looked to my right and then 30 feet away is this monstrous engine. Now it wasn't moving, and then just after I crossed the intersection then I heard the bell start to ring and the gates came down. But they were not down when I went around it."

I asked Knickerbocker whose responsibility it is to monitor the tracks and the oncoming traffic, as it is my understanding that it is a shared responsibility, DOT's responsibility for the road part and Metro-North/MTA for the railroad part. Knickerbocker said, "Well the Federal Railroad Administration is in there too, and I have sent an email off to Senator Blumenthal's office expressing my concern and now I was told that they expect to have a fix for the system in place by next week. And what is today, today is Tuesday, so I was told that yesterday.  So they said sometime next week they expect, I don't know if it's part, or you know, whatever."  

Knickerbocker continued, "I know what part of the problem is. It's an old system but it's tied into the 70 million dollar switching system that they've put in over the last few years. And I'm not an engineer so I don't know enough about how they used to be triggered, how the gates would come down as a train is approaching, but the new system, to put it in simple terms, so I can understand it, it runs a current along both electrical tracks, a weak current, and of course when the train is coming down the tracks the steel wheels then close that circuit, right?  So that's how the main switching computer down in Grand Central Terminal knows where the train is because they've got this great big electronic board that shows where every train is and how fast it's going and all that stuff.  So this new system, they can look up at a graphic display like an air traffic controller, they can see where the train is and that's how they know. So the gates are now part of that new system and there's a malfunction in that when the weather is wet, the problem we had before it got real cold is that the gates were coming down when there was no train. There's so much ground water in some sections of the track it's completing that circuit and making the system think there is a train coming when there isn't."

"Do you think there is ground water on Greenwood Avenue?" I asked Knickerbocker.  He replied, "Oh heck yeah. Our Highway Department has been going back and forth with the DOT and the railroad people for years, because they think it's because of a groundwater situation.  It's mostly at South Street, but a little at the Greenwood crossing too. There's a high water table there and there's never been drainage put in around the track. And it's really bad at the South Street side, like it's between Agway and Bethel Cycle Shop, because water runs right down the hill and it will pool at that intersection." 

"So even if it's not raining out, you think there's a water problem? Because I know that some of these incidents happened when it wasn't wet out," I said.  Knickerbocker replied, "Yeah, it might be bone dry and warm, but if it had rained the previous 2 days and the ground water table is still high, it can trigger that,  So they've got to fix the system because there are many places along the line, not just there, where they are high water tables, and I mean that's a naturally occurring thing. They should have thought of that 150 years ago before they put the railroads up there."

I mentioned to Knickerbocker that according to input on social media, even though higher up officials of MTA and local towns know about this problem, the bottom line becomes what is being done right at this moment to address the crossing gates and road situation, for people driving on Greenwood Avenue, for example, to warn people to look for the train. You can send out emails and notices but all people might not see that, and so they are driving along oblivious to the crossing gates problem. I asked Knickerbocker, "Why aren't some sort of signs being placed at either side of the train tracks to warn people?  Something such as a simple sandwich board to warn drivers, that says something to the effect  'Proceed with Caution, Crossing Gates Not Working'  or whatever you want it to read. Why is that not being done?"  Knickerbocker said, "That's the first suggestion I've ever heard that it should be done. When you take a Driver's Ed course, one of the things they tell you is 'never trust the signal system.' You know, always slow down and look.  That's why school buses are required by law to stop and look. Now I know that people aren't going to remember that."  "Well I slow down and look now," I said.  He replied, "I do now."

Knickerbocker said, "Coming back from Danbury I think about a week and a half ago, and I drove by the intersection that you first wrote about, the one that's farther up near South Street.  And I saw that there were Danbury Police there stopping traffic and workers working on the gate, the gate was not down and there was a train going by.  You know, just creeping by.  I could tell that that was the issue."

"Well you know that there was a train/pick-up truck accident in January?"  I said. (The accident which happened as I was reporting on my third update story). Luckily the driver walked away."  Knickerbocker replied, "Yes."   I also mentioned to him that the train issues have been going on even before the repair issues, when there was a bad train/vehicle accident at a Redding crossing several years ago, a location which isn't that far away, where there were no gates, which is a whole other issue.  "That's the intersection by the railroad station, by the restaurant," Knickerbocker said.  I said, "Yes."

"So to recap, you have contacted Metro-North and also Senator Blumenthal, and you are waiting for them to get back to you?" I asked.  Knickerbocker said, "Well I'm not expecting another call from Metro-North unless it's to say 'Gee it's going to be all summer.'  What I've been told is that they expect it to be fixed in a week.  So I don't really expect to hear back from them unless there's some change in the schedule."

Again, the problem is that there are incidents on record ONLY when people report malfunctions they witnessed, so there are probably many incidents that are not reported, as confirmed by the many conversations I've seen on social media by local Danbury and Bethel residents talking about their experiences (and not necessarily reporting it).  

The railroad system repairs and/or upgrade is supposedly being worked on, but the average person does not know that when they approach the railroad crossing, that the gates and signals are not working properly.  I reminded Knickerbocker that he just mentioned his own experience of driving down Greenwood and suddenly seeing a train there, that he was not expecting to see, and that it surprised him too. I had suggested to Knickerbocker that warning signs be placed on either side of the tracks for now, because it is such a simple, yet viable solution, to warn people to proceed with caution when approaching train crossings.  "That's a good idea," said Knickerbocker.  "Is it possible that this is NOT being done because no one, such as train officials, wants to be embarrassed that the gates are still not working properly?  A simple sign would even save the town Bethel liability," I said.

I asked Knickerbocker where the other train crossings were in Bethel, and he said, "Just at Taylor Road, in between Rings End and Agway.  That's the only other crossing that I know of. Let's see, there's the railroad, so those are Bethel's three crossings."  I indicated that it wouldn't take much to be to place two signs at each of the crossings. I asked Knickerbocker, "Would you consider the sign solution?"  Knickerbocker replied, "I'd demand that MTA put them up, and maintain them, and pay for them."   I said, "Are you planning on doing that?"  Knickerbocker said, "I'm going to give them a call."   I said, "Okay that would be great.  If you could let me know if they agreed to that I'd appreciate it." Knickerbocker said he would do that.     

***          

INTERVIEW WITH DANBURY MAYOR MARK BOUGHTON

Mayor Boughton said, "We've notified Metro-North, oh I don't know, about 800 times about this issue. Those are their tracks, they are responsible for maintenance, and they're going to have to take the liability challenges as well, God forbid something happens. So we're doing the best we can to notify residents, but, you know, this has gone on way too long, it's completely unacceptable and it's symptomatic of the fact that these folks, you know, are just not doing a good job when it comes to running this railroad."  

I asked Mayor Boughton how he is notifying the residents and he said, "We personally are not notifying the residents, right, so you have to understand, in other words, we're not sending out messages because we don't know when they are going to be fixed, we don't know if they've been fixed, and we are not getting any feedback at all.  All's we can do is just like the residents, is complain to Metro-North, that they're creating a dangerous situation.  Now our local paper has put something up on their website, and there's been discussions on the radio about this, to tell people to be careful, but it's very frustrating for us. They have to own this, they can't push this off to us, and say 'well this is your problem city of Danbury,' and it's completely ridiculous that they can't fix these crossings."

I asked Mayor Boughton how he would separate the actual authority over the roads and over the railroad, understanding that there is a working relationship, that the DOT is responsible for the roads, and I asked if this included some sort of signage warning residents that the gates might possibly be not working, who does that fall on?  He replied, "Under the Federal Railroad Acts, the road itself belongs to the railroad.  They have a right to cross, it's their portion of the road."   

I asked Mayor Boughton to clarify, about whose authority it is regarding control over the actual roads leading up to the railroad tracks, asking if it was in fact under the DOT and he replied, "Well yeah it is, but again we're not getting any feedback from Metro-North, as to when they'll be fixed, they keep telling us they will be fixed at any time. We don't have the resources to put a cop out at every railroad section and Metro-North would never reimburse us for that, they'd never pay us for that."

"How about signage?"  I asked.  Boughton replied, "How about we ask Metro-North to put signage out there? It's their problem, right?   I asked Boughton, "Have you done that?"  He replied, "Oh, like 800 times."    "You have?  And their response has been what, they ignore you?" I asked.   Boughton said, "Yeah basically.  If somebody gets hurt it's going to be whacked with a lawsuit."

"It's got to be a simple fix, WHAT is the problem?" Boughton said.  "I'm outraged.  I can't tell you how upset I am about this."

"Are you getting any feedback on social media about this?" I asked Boughton, and he replied, "I have. I've gotten some requests and pleas to appeal to Metro-North, and we are, and we have been. Definitely I've seen it's starting to build on the social media, no question about that."

I indicated to Boughton how much input I've received about concern on this gates malfunction issue, especially from Moms with children, who are afraid to cross the tracks, etc. and Boughton replied, "Absolutely.  I mean again they've assured us multiple times that the fix would be done shortly, and yet the problems continue to persist. It's really frustrating."

I asked Boughton, "Even though the MTA says they are working on it, what is the immediate situation, because it hasn't changed regarding the immediate situation, the gates are not working constantly now?"  He replied, "The thing is, you can't get any straight information about which ones are and which ones aren't, and I don't know enough about the repair process of these things, maybe they've got to shut one down to fix it, so you would say okay, 'so from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., this crossing at this intersection will not be functioning, as we work to repair it', you know, that's the way we do things, right?  We send out a note, we notify everybody, hey we're going to be working on this road, this lane's going to be closed, for these hours, and when it's done we'll let you know.'  You can't get anything out of them."

I mentioned that perhaps you cannot rely on warning notices to the public and I suggested having a physical sign at crossings, and asked Boughton, "Whose responsibility that would be, maybe Metro-North/MTA?" Boughton said, "Yes absolutely. Look, we don't want to see anybody get hurt, I mean that's the bottom line.  Even if they said to us, 'hey listen, the gate at'  I am making up an intersection, 'House Street and Main, is not working and will not be working for three weeks while we wait for parts.'  At that point you can send out an out call, and you could do, 'well we'll help you do some notification and whatever, to the best we can,' do some newspaper spots and video spots and radio spots, etc. and they can't even get that information, it's drives you crazy."

I mentioned that the feedback I am getting from the local Moms in Bethel and Danbury, including Greenwood Avenue crossing and also Shelter Rock Road, has also been regarding malfunction problems and that the parents are getting scared to cross the railroad tracks. "Shelter Rock has been the biggest headache for us," Boughton said.  "There was also that train/pick-up truck crash in January," I said.  "Right, right," Boughton replied.

I also mentioned to Boughton the recent resignation of top MTA officials, in how this is becoming a complete mess. (See my article "Howard Permut, Metro-North President, Announced Retirement.") 
 
"So you are on top of it, you're after them, and they are just not getting back to you, is this correct?" I said.  "Oh it's been the worst," Boughton said.  "Just say, 'look, we're waiting for parts, we can't fix that gate for three weeks.' Okay, now we know, we can put out all the information we need, at least locally, even though Metro-North should be doing it, they won't do it because they are so incompetent, but they can't even give you that kind of feedback."  

"Paula I didn't mean to vent on you but I'm really frustrated." Boughton said in closing.

***

I will continue reporting on this topic.  Let's hope this situation gets resolved soon so everyone can be safe.