Officials Look to Federal Gov’t for Improvements to RR Crossings
Elected officials serving parts of the area serviced by Metro-North’s Harlem line are pressing the federal government for action to prevent a repeat of last week’s accident in Valhalla.
New Castle Supervisor Robert Greenstein, whose community saw two of its residents killed, sent a letter last Friday to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand requesting federal money to construct an overpass from the Saw Mill Parkway at Roaring Brook Road. He said it is a project that has been talked about for decades but the prohibitive expense has prevented the state and federal government from funding the project.
Greenstein said the site is unique because the Saw Mill interchange at Roaring Brook Road is heavily congested during the morning and evening rush hours and sits close to the parkway and less than a half-mile from Horace Greeley High School.
“During the morning and evening rush hours, traffic converges at this location and routinely backs up over the grade crossing and onto the Saw Mill River Parkway,” Greenstein wrote in part. “Because of the proximity of Horace Greeley High School, the morning rush hour traffic typically includes a large percentage of young and relatively inexperienced drivers.”
During the past 10 years, problems with the train crossing gates have been reported 14 times to the New Castle Police Department, Greenstein said. In addition, there have been numerous accidents near the site.
Greenstein said it was important to highlight the inadequacies of grade crossings, particularly when the issue is in the public’s consciousness. Also, a project of that magnitude would need federal money, although he had no estimates on how much an overpass from the parkway at Roaring Brook Road would cost.
“We definitely hope it’s a start and it will force people to take some action as well,” Greenstein said.
State Sen. Terrence Murphy (R-Yorktown), whose district includes the crash site, the Town of New Castle and many of the stops along the Harlem line into Putnam County, said all levels of government need to work together to make sure grade crossings throughout the Hudson Valley are safe.
“It is our due diligence to learn something out of this,” Murphy said. “You get the federal, the state and the county (governments), you get whatever it takes to keep the people safe. That’s the most important thing.”
Assemblyman David Buchwald said in a statement last week key issues that will be reviewed in the weeks and months ahead include whether Metro-North could have done anything differently last week and what can be done to make railroad grade crossings safer. In addition, potential modifications of train car and train track construction should also be looked at.
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-Cold Spring) last Wednesday discussed legislation he’s pushing forward that would increase the annual federal funding available to $100 million to move or raise road-level rail crossings to safer locations. He stressed there is work to be done to make railroad crossings safer.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
