MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Residents in Delaware County are hoping to get a little more sleep, now that SEPTA will be doing less overnight testing of its commuter train horns at the Lenni rail yard.
The noise complaints began last summer when SEPTA extended Regional Rail service to the Wawa Station. People living in Middletown Township, Chester Heights and Aston heard the blast of train horns 24 hours a day.
“They like to show off their 110-decibel air horns all through the night — all hours of the night,” one resident told the Middletown Township Council last month. “It’s unnerving.”
Kristen Clark lives about a quarter-mile from the Lenni Road rail crossing. She said the horns don’t bother her, but she empathizes with those who live closer.
“We’ve been down there when the train comes by,” she said. “We’ve been stopped at the light. So I can imagine that it would be a little more menacing.”
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The horns sound at the crossing and the nearby rail yard, where SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said tests are required at the beginning and end of a train’s service day.
“Those horn tests that they have heard, we have to conduct those per the rules of the Federal Railroad Administration,” he explained.
Five trains parked at the Lenni rail yard were sounding their horns between midnight and 5 a.m.
Effective last week, SEPTA adjusted the schedules to test four of the trains by 10:30 p.m. One train doesn’t arrive at the yard until 1 a.m., so it will still have to sound its horn at that time, Busch said.
An online petition to spur action by SEPTA has garnered nearly 200 signatures.
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