A photo taken by Abigail Adams on November 2 of a train (an engine pulling a car filed with ballast) slowly moving toward the Tower Road crossing.
Railroad crossing problems continue in Lincoln as multiple residents reported this week that gates were stuck down and even a non-passenger train approaching when the gates were up — though Keolis and MBTA officials said this was related to ongoing track work and there was no danger.
LincolnTalk was abuzz Tuesday and Wednesday with emails from Lincolnites who sat in their cars for extended periods at crossings where the gates were down but a train never came. Resident Abigail Adams had the opposite experience as she was approaching the Tower Road crossing on Wednesday.
“As I was nearing the gate (but still at a distance), I saw the gate going up and the red lights turning off, so I assumed a train had just passed,” she told the Lincoln Squirrel. “As I got closer, I saw a train moving out of the corner of my eye so I immediately stopped and honked the horn and starting waving at the oncoming car to stop. They too realized what was happening and stopped their car. The train was coming at a lesser speed than normal. I think the conductor realized the gates were not down, and someone got off the train, looked up at the gates and then stood on the side of the tracks to block cars from crossing, and then the train proceeded to move across the road.
“After the main part of the train was across the road and about two carriers as well, the lights came on and the gates went down,” she continued. “Once the train was gone and lights and gates off and up, I went across. I had to re-cross about 12 minutes later and there were then three Keolis trucks there upon my return looking over the situation.”
The Lincoln Squirrel sent Adams’s photo of the train to Keolis officials. “There is nothing in the photo to indicate that there was any safety risk to anyone or that standard safety procedures weren’t followed,” responded Keolis spokesperson Alana Westwater.
“Most of you have probably experienced the frustration of sitting at the railroad crossing with the arms down for what feels like hours, only of the arms to go up with either no train passing, or the arms never go up and people have to drive around the arms to get to the other side, or you give up and find another way that doesn’t involve crossing the railroad tracks,” resident Liz Lieblich wrote on November 1. “I feel like 85% of the time, the arms (when they come down), have problems.”
Lieblich said she called the phone number posted at the crossing (800-449-6393) and explained that the crossing has had issues for some time, though especially this week. This causes traffic to build up on Tower Road and 117, making turns onto 117 from Tower ever more difficult and dangerous. She quoted the person as saying that “the crossing mechanisms at Tower Road differ from most others and it’s the most problematic of the crossings.” They also said that trains were being required to slow down and stop at the crossing because something was wrong with the gates,
“His suggestion was to always call and report an issue so that the problem becomes elevated — to what end, I don’t know,” she said.
“I’ve experienced the delays and two close calls, both on Tower Road,” another resident wrote on LincolnTalk. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to trust the tracks even when they’re repaired!”
The issues are especially worrisome in light of an incident last April when, due to an error on the part of a maintenance worker, a train came through the Route 177 crossing at almost full speed and narrowly missed hitting the car of a Lincoln resident who got her car off the tracks just in time.
Town officials who contacted the MBTA in response to this week’s listserv posts were told that the MBTA is doing track maintenance along the Fitchburg line and is working in Lincoln this week. “When maintenance activities are taking place in close proximity to a crossing, the MBTA’s protocol is to take that particular crossing out of service,” Town Administrator Tim Higgins reported in an email to LincolnTalk. In that situation, the MBTA tower/dispatch center tells all approaching trains to come to a complete stop before reaching the crossing. “A train crew member then exits the train and walks alongside until the train has safely cleared the crossing. We have been told that this is standard operating procedure,” he said.
“However, we have also received reports of gates going up and coming immediately back down as vehicles are proceeding through a crossing, nearly coming down on top of the passing vehicle,” Higgins continued. “We have also reported this concern to the MBTA. We urge residents not to proceed through a crossing while the lights are flashing, even if the gates are in the upright position.”
Lincoln Police Lt. Sean Kennedy was more reassuring in another email to LincolnTalk earlier on November 2 after speaking to an MBTA construction supervisor and the track supervisor for the Lincoln area
“First and foremost, the track supervisor said there is no safety concern with the Tower Road crossing. The signal at that crossing is working properly, as are all of our crossings,” Kennedy wrote. The Tower Road crossing had had a problem in the past that required trains to stop, but it was resolved, he said.
“The reason why the gates are remaining down for an extended period of time is due to the ongoing construction which requires a speed restriction for the trains,” he continued. “As explained to me, the signaling [mechanism] which trips the crossing is approximately 4,000 feet before the crossing. Under normal operations, when a train is traveling at 70mph in that area, the signaling [mechanism] trips the crossing gates to come down. Due to the speed restriction, the trains are now traveling at 25-30mph and therefore the gates are down more than twice as [long as] usual.
An October 26 panoramic photo by Alaric Naiman of construction equipment on the tracks next to the Donelan’s parking lot (click to enlarge).
“From time to time, the construction crews working on the tracks will move equipment towards a crossing, which will in turn trip the signaling which causes the gates to come down and then go back up when a train isn’t in the area,” Kennedy said.
In an email to the Lincoln Squirrel on Thursday, Keolis spokesperson Alana Westwater confirmed that railroad ties and ballast (the rocky bed under the rails and ties) are being replaced as part of routine track maintenance.
“During construction, at impacted crossings, people in town will notice that we have put some additional safety measures in place that will change crossing operations temporarily. Crossings that are not impacted by construction will see normal operations,” she wrote. “Some of the changes may mean that crossing gates are down longer as trains reduce speed, or that trains adopt a ‘stop and protect’ procedure where the crew stops the train and walks it through the crossings in lieu of the crossing gates being activated. All these changes are designed to keep drivers, pedestrians, construction crews, train crews and passengers safe.”
Westwater said construction will be finished by December 2 “unless impacted by weather or other unforeseen circumstances” and that commuter rail passengers “may experience some minor delays.” She encouraged them to subscribe to T alerts and follow @MBTA_CR schedule information.