Residents’ Hopes Ride on a Rail Underpass

Hilda Mercado regularly shutters her home’s large windows in hopes they will buffer the rumble and screech of passing trains.

The windows, however, are no match for the sounds of lumbering trains and their shrill whistles. The mother of three said the noise jars her children awake almost hourly through the night.

“The noise is terrible,” Mercado said, speaking in Spanish. Were it not for the lower rent because they live near the tracks, the family would move, she said.

Mercado’s home is only about 50 feet from the railroad, which carries an average of 60 freight and passenger trains every day.

The rail crossing that parallels Rivera Road at Passons Boulevard in Pico Rivera is one of the worst in southeast Los Angeles County for traffic, noise and blocked streets, city officials say.

Officials, worried that elementary school students will scurry dangerously in front of stopped trains, have hired guards to watch the crossing before and after school.

More than 100 Pico Rivera residents recently confronted city officials with their complaints. The officials listened and then outlined a plan to build an underpass, at a cost of up to $30 million, at the Passons-Rivera intersection. Design work that is likely to take a year to complete is underway, using $4.4 million in funds already on hand, officials said.

Assistant City Manager Ann Negendak said it could be years before construction begins.

In the meantime, residents of the affected neighborhood face a variety of problems day and night.

A rail yard northwest of the intersection is so small that trains often block streets for extended periods while cargo is loaded and unloaded, said Lena Kent, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.

As the freight trains inch forward and backward, traffic backs up on Passons at Rivera.

Bert Rodriguez, who has helped organize community protests over the railroad, said he has seen trains block the intersection for as long as an hour.

Authorities have advised residents who are angry about the blockages to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Although a citation can be issued to train operators, none have been written in more than two years, said Mark Contreras, a sheriff’s traffic investigator.

Residents said train operators sometimes stop their locomotives at night to buy refreshments at a 7-Eleven store next to the intersection. Two 7-Eleven clerks confirmed the complaints.

The train operators “come to buy coffee and soda” while the trains are blocking the intersection, said clerk Edwin Ignacio.

Kent said railroad supervisors are not aware of operators stopping trains for food. If supervisors found that taking place, the operators “would be disciplined,” Kent said.

A report by the Gateway Council of Governments, which encompasses 27 cities in southeast Los Angeles County, predicts that train travel affecting the area will double over the next decade.

Burgeoning international trade through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach contributes to the increasing rail traffic. Much of the rail cargo is processed near Pico Rivera at rail yards in Commerce and near downtown Los Angeles.

Part of the Gateway Council of Governments’ mission is to assess the strain being placed on communities between downtown Los Angeles and points east and to obtain money to help solve the problem, said Richard Powers, the organization’s director.

State and local governments and railroad companies are working to secure funds for projects such as the Pico Rivera underpass. In addition to the $4.4 million for design work, about $9 million is budgeted by the California Department of Transportation and the railroad, Negendak said.

“We’re really hopeful” that a solution to the noise and traffic problems will be completed, she said.

An underpass would remove trains from the intersection and eliminate the whistles near Mercado’s house.

She doubts, however, that her train troubles will come to an end. “I don’t believe it,” she said.