Train Projects in North County

Re “Ditching the Slow Train Blues” (Sept. 11):

Why are the city, county officials and the transportation board so adamant about pushing the ditch for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway? Why is the BNSF so bent on having a third track in Anaheim? It’s for the railroad’s benefit at our expense.

Do the people of Yorba Linda, Anaheim Hills, Placentia and Fullerton understand the time it will take to construct the proposed ditch and the inconvenience it will cause? Ask the people who had to endure the freeway widening through Anaheim. What do you think the railroad is going to do with the trains during the construction? It will not be a problem; itwill reroute them--over the Union Pacific from Colton to Los Angeles.

I would suggest that the city fathers investigate joint track usage from Ontario or Colton to Los Angeles. They have the space to add extra tracks and a straight run to Los Angeles. The only need for freight trains through Fullerton, Anaheim and Yorba Linda would be for local freight, three or four a day. I would venture a guess that for half the $350-million estimated cost, this alternative could be had without construction headaches and make the existing tracks usable for commuter trains.

GEORGE RUSSELL

Brea

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Regarding the five-mile underground railroad tracks proposed for the so-called Orangethorpe Corridor through Placentia, Yorba Linda and east Anaheim, we are dismayed that it appears Fullerton’s only involvement in the corridor is that it would begin at Placentia Avenue, Fullerton’s eastern border with Placentia, and go east. This will leave the east Fullerton north-south thoroughfares of Raymond, South Acacia and State College with grade crossings and more frequent lengthy delays for those of us who live in or commute through the area. Also, the noise and infernal horn blasting at 3 a.m. at these crossings will just get worse as rail traffic increases. We live two miles north of the tracks, and on cool nights we could swear those freights are going right past our house. We can’t imagine how those folks who live closer to the tracks ever get any sleep!

The city of Fullerton is currently spending several million taxpayer dollars (most of it federal) building an absurd underpass on Highland Avenue, a two-lane street just two blocks west of the Harbor Boulevard underpass just so the police can get to the other side of the tracks faster and because that dangling federal money was burning a hole in the city’s pocket.

It’s time for Fullerton to do something to alleviate the traffic on the east side. Fullerton needs to be a part of the underground corridor.

JOSEPH BYRNE SIMPSON

SUSAN K. SIMPSON

Fullerton