Hopes for a seasonal respite from the sounding of commuter rail train horns at the Needham Golf Club crossing will have to wait until next winter as the town has proven unable to conclude an agreement with the MBTA on how to implement the proposed three-month program.
The idea was to close off access to crossing the tracks during the winter months when no golfers are using the course. Trains would no longer have to sound their horns for safety as they passed that crossing. At the other five crossings in town, train horns would still be mandatory.
At a public hearing on the proposal at its Feb. 10 meeting, the Select Board expressed its regret at the town not being able to capitalize on the opportunity to provide a modicum of relief from the horns between Dec. 1 and March 1. The winter closure would eliminate the blasts from the 32 trains that pass the crossing each weekday.
“Legal contracting is just always slower than anyone ever hopes it’s going to be,” said Select Board Chair Heidi Frail at the outset of the hearing. “While it seems really simple, it’s just generally not.”
The board did signal that it is committed to having a seasonal ban starting in December of this year.
The plan originated from the efforts of Harris Avenue resident Chris Supple, who began reaching out to the MBTA in August. He obtained a commitment around Thanksgiving from the MBTA via an email from Michael Muller, the MBTA’s executive director of the commuter rail.
In a Nov. 17 email to Supple, who was not working as an agent of the town, Muller wrote “if the golf course were to install a locked gate … we can instruct train engineers NOT to sound the horn at this private crossing during the off season while the gate is locked.”
That set in motion in early December an attempt to convert that email commitment into a formal legal agreement. In addition to numerous email exchanges, the plan was discussed at two Quiet Zone Working Group meetings and a Select Board meeting, but no formal agreement emerged.
“We did start to kind of get the wheels in motion,” Town Manager Katie King said at the outset of the hearing. In the end, navigating issues of potential liability, indemnification, the design of the gate and other details led to the clock running out before an agreement could be completed.
The Select Board scheduled the Feb. 10 public hearing to ensure that both supporters and any opponents of the seasonal ban would have the chance to comment. Six residents took advantage of the opportunity to testify and all were in favor of implementing the ban at the earliest possible convenience.
This included Supple, who expressed both frustration and incredulity about the inability to codify the MBTA’s offer.
“This is a 24-foot gap in a chain link fence, and we’ve been talking about it forever,” he said at one point. “The relief it would bring would be incredible.”
“If the golf club fencing contractor does it on Friday like he says he will — and I’ll pay him. It’s $700, I don’t care. And he’ll take it down on March 1. It will take him an hour.”
Assessing the nature of the effort since the fall, Supple told the Select Board, “The MBTA has been great. The golf club has been great and you all have been tough, candidly.”
Other residents were not critical as much as perplexed about the delay.
“We hear 148 horn blasts every single weekday,” said Fuller Road resident Toby Seggerman. “Since they did all the tree work over the past few years, the train horn sounds like it’s next door.”
“This just seems like such an easy, common sense solution,” he added.
“Needham is one of the loudest places around,” said Charlie Mahoney of Lawton Road. “It’s just remarkable that we’ve been putting up with this.”
Alexandra Clark, president of the golf club, said the club was amenable to whatever the town agreed to and what the neighbors desired.
“The Needham Golf Club wants to be a good neighbor. We want to partner with the town and the MBTA and work with everybody to establish a seasonal crossing and then, in the future, a culvert for a more permanent solution.”
The “culvert” is a reference to a plan to construct a tunnel or culvert under the tracks to replace the current above-ground crossing.
In the discussion after the testimony concluded, Select Board members Kevin Keane and Josh Levy expressed an interest in voting on the issue right away. The Select Board does not usually vote on issues during a meeting with a public hearing; it waits for further public comment then has a board discussion and vote at a subsequent meeting.
No motion was made to conduct a vote as King was firm in stating that a pilot this year was not feasible. “My recommendation remains to have the seasonal closing with a December 2026 start,” said King.
“I know that any day (without horns) is of value to everyone,” she said. “It’s just a matter of all the other things we have on our plate that we’re trying to get done under particular deadlines.”
This was a reference to the ongoing town budget process, planning for Annual Town Meeting and, coincidentally, the effort to come up with a reliable cost estimate for a proposed Town Meeting warrant article to fund the safety improvements necessary to create a permanent Quiet Zone, eliminating the need for train horns at least at the five at-grade crossings on public ways.
The placeholder amount for that project is $7 million, but that could change as construction documents become more complete.
The golf course is effectively a separate project. It is not on a public way, and the crossing is considered “private,” even though it is town-owned and leased to the golf club. It can’t be included in a Quiet Zone.
The Select Board deferred to King and opted not to vote. It will take up the issue at its next meeting.
“Everyone here should understand how committed this board is to the Quiet Zone in general, and to this particular solution happening in December of this year,” said Vice Chair Cathy Dowd.
“We’re hearing from the town manager that this isn’t really doable and that voting tonight will make no difference in terms of the timeline.”
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