Chugga Chugga, Shh Shh
Coalition In Montauk Seeks To
Shut Down Idling Trains

Montauk Pioneer - August 29, 2003

BY DAVID LION RATTINER

An electric train is traveling at sixty miles an hour heading East out to Montauk. The train is heading east against a wind that is a powerful seventy-five miles an hour. The wind is traveling in the opposite direction that the train is heading. You have fifteen seconds to tell me which way the smoke from the train is blowing. Take a minute here to think about it.

Keep on thinking about it. You can do it. The wind is blowing faster than the train. It is heading against the wind. IT'S AN ELECTRIC TRAIN. Electric trains do not have any smoke. Pretty tricky huh?

Well unfortunately for Montauk there are no electric trains bringing in visitors from New York City and all across Long Island via the Long Island Rail Road. What they do have however are diesel engines. The smoke from these engines pollute the air and are pretty bad for the environment. They also make a lot of noise. The trains come in and out every single day letting people to come and visit, letting workers to get to work, and letting people travel in style. A group of Montaukers have found something that bothers them about the trains however.

A new group in Montauk has formed, calling themselves the Montauk Anti-Pollution Coalition.

The group is starting to make some noise about the noisy, polluting, idling trains out at the Montauk Railroad Station. When the trains are parked at the station and left on, they let out the unwanted fumes from the diesel engines while at the same time are making a lot of noise. The head chairman of the Montauk Anti-Pollution Coalition, Tom Bogdan and the president, John Craft are doing what they can to put a stop to these noisy trains.

This article is not intended to bash the idea of train travel. Trains, when compared to cars, are probably less harmful to the environment. The trains are an enjoyable part of the experience out in Montauk and they are pretty cool looking in my opinion.

The main thing about this whole idea of turning off the trains when they are idling is pretty simple really. Montauk just doesn't want to be wasting any energy and it doesn't want to deal with the loud noise. Turning off the trains while idling is not such a bad idea.

It is amazing at how much controversy has come about and how many people are necessary in order to make a change like this. The coalition has collected over 1,000 names on a petition asking the railroad to turn off the engines while they are idle. Using big words and legal terms such as, "psychological and physical" public nuisance.

In reality, it seems to me that all of this trouble is happening over something that can be fixed very easily. If you think about it, asking the railroad to turn off the train while the trains are idle is like asking a child to turn out the lights when he or she leaves a room. It is a simple flip of the switch. Your electric bill goes down and the child learns how to conserve energy. It is a win-win situation.

The same goes for the trains. All they have to do is flip a switch. Montauk will get less diesel pollution and less noise pollution while at the same time the railroad will be saving money on gas. They have a win-win situation as well. You would think that they would not have to make such a big fuss about the whole deal.

This whole fume and noise business has been a problem for a long time however. William D. Akin, who is the president of the 700 member Concerned Citizens of Montauk, has written and received dozens of complaints each year about the noise and the fumes. The railroad is noise and fume crazy, and all they have to do is flip the switch.

You would think that at least someone down at the railroad station would say something about the fumes and the noise and then simply turn the key and stop the problem. My guess is that it does not work that way for some reason. They probably have to go to the higher ups, deal with a lot of legal and paper work, and then after one year of talks and speeches and pay cuts, they will turn off the engines while they are idle. The reason that they have to go through with all of this probably has to do with legal reasons. They have to worry that maybe one of the railroad engineers will catch a rare form of fresh air induced emphysema and sue them. L.I.R.R. probably has to get all of the railroad engineers to sign a waiver. This waiver, designed by lawyers and legal experts, will state that the engineers cannot sue the railroad should something bad happen to them because they were told that they had to turn the key to the trains engine off whle it was idling. It just does not work the way it used to. If this was all going on fifty years ago, a guy from Gosman s would probably head down to the railroad station and get into a fight with the head engineer, put him in a headlock and not let go until the engineer agreed that he would turn off the engines. It would all be solved in a day.

I'm really glad that this coalition exists. The environment is so important out here in Montauk. It relates to everything, from quality of life, commerce, and even the food that you get when you go out to eat. The more people that want to help out the environment the better. Start doing things for the environment, it is the best thing you can do for yourself and one of the best things that you can teach your kids.