ANAHEIM : Sound Wall Sought Along Rail Track

The residents of Northfield Avenue know a piece of paper can’t stop a train, but maybe it can block its sound.

Neighbors are circulating a petition asking the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the city to build a sound wall to protect their homes from a new track that is being laid next to an existing Santa Fe track. They plan to present the petition to the City Council on Tuesday.

The new track, in some cases, will be within nine feet of residents’ back yards (the old track is about 25 feet back) and is being laid within feet of a steep slope that stands 15 feet above their properties.

The track will be used by Metrolink commuter trains connecting Riverside and Los Angeles and by Santa Fe freight trains. Residents say they have been told by railroad officials that the number of trains passing behind their homes will increase from 24 to 50 a day.

Karen Winkle, a homemaker and a leader of the petition drive, said the neighbors fear that one day a train will derail and tumble into their yards. A sound wall would at least slow the train and could prevent any chemicals from spilling into their yards, as well as keep out most of the day-to-day noise.

“There was no public input on whether this new track should be laid,” Winkle said. “The workers just showed up one day. We thought they were clearing weeds. But then one of the neighbors went up and asked what was going on and that’s when we found out. . . . The least (the city) should have done was conduct an environmental impact study.”

But John Lower, the city’s traffic and transportation engineer, said state law does not require railroads to get local government permission to expand operations.

“The state Environmental Quality Act specifically exempts railroads from filing environmental impact studies on projects in their existing right of ways,” Lower said. He said all the city can do is lobby Santa Fe and ask it to build the sound wall.

Sue DiLuigi, an office manager and one of the Northfield residents, said residents have contacted officials at the railroad and at the federal, state and local government levels without success. “Each agency pushes us off on another,” she said.

Nick DiFiore, another resident, said the residents know they can’t stop the track from being built. All they want is some protection, he said.

“You know that with that many trains going by, there is going to be an incident,” said DiFiore, an insurance consultant. “There have already been derailments on the existing track further down in Fullerton. Somebody needs to do something before there is a loss of life and property.”