I think they might have muted it. >> They came back. They just muted it. Thank you. Good evening. Sorry, I didn't mean that to be so loud. Uh we're going to get started in just a few minutes. I want to invite people to come down and fill in. Get close. We've got plenty of
seats up front. If you would like to make public comment this evening, um the board asks that you take a minute to sign in um outside on the signin sheet. Um we'll get started in about five minutes, so come on in and and grab your
seats. Thank you. more people. That's right. Do you know that's um the CEO or COO of the NBA. So they kind of listen to me. >> Right. >> You got to make it work for what you do.
>> Yeah. >> Good evening once again. Uh for those who are looking for wifi in the room, we have an enhanced network set up. RPS town is the Wi-Fi network that's available. Again, RPS town if you
need Wi-Fi. >> People are coming in now. a lot of lines. >> No. Yeah, they can go in and out. >> I'll mention it once again in the beginning. >> Okay. >> I made them
We'll see how Thank you everybody. I will call the um special select board meeting of October 27th to order. I'll just take a roll call for attendance real quick. Um Karen Herrick, Karen Rose Gillis, Carlo Bachi,
and Chris Haley here. Um the first item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. >> All right, thank you everybody for coming out tonight. Uh just going to give you an overview of the meeting real quick. Uh 7:05 we'll have a presentation from the Reading Turnback Track Committee. Uh 7:35 we may or may not
have a presentation from the MBTA, but there are some people in attendance here. 805 will have public comment on the proposed MBTA turnback track and then 9:35 discuss and vote by the select board um to oppose or support the MBTA
turnback track location. Um, do any other boards or committees have to call to order? I think climate was the only one. >> All good. Okay. All right. So, real quick on the public comment thing, uh, around seven. So, there's a signup sheet in the back for public comment. I'm
going to be calling names off that um to start. Uh so, if you want to sign in, please make sure you do uh in the back right over there. Um and then I'm going to gauge the public comment portion based off how many um people have signed up. I think there's about 60, which the
math doesn't work out quite too well, so we'll play it by ear when it comes up. Um, and without further ado, I will turn it over to Lucas in the presentation from the Reading Turnback Track Committee. >> Thank you, Chris.
Good evening and thank you um all very much for attending and thank you to the select board and town officials for hosting this meeting. It is beyond appreciated. And I also wanted to extend a thank you. Uh I see that Ryan Coholan, CEO of the MBTA is here. Thank you very
much for making the effort to come. I really appreciate it. Um my name is Lucas Praau and I'm a Reading resident. Imp more importantly, I'm a husband and father to three daughters who all call Reading home. I'm also part of the Reading Turnback Committee, RTC, a group
of neighbors that consists of parents, grandparents, and MBTA riders who came together because we love this community and want to make sure that progress doesn't come at the cost of the people who live in Reading. The things that we were going to cover
tonight is who we are, the reading turnback track committee, um, proposed turnback track plan and scope, community impacts, conclusion, and how you as the public Thank you. I just can't thank you enough for coming tonight. It's amazing.
I really do. It shows how I moved here about 16 years ago. I'm ad liming right now, but I moved here 16 years ago and I think almost every other person I talked to is a readingite. Someone who did not want to leave reading and I can see why
they didn't leave Reading. Um, so just moving on after that. Um, let me be clear. The RTC supports better, more reliable rail service. We want to see the MBTA succeed, but what we do not
want is a project that puts all reading families, not just us, a butters, all reading families health and safety at risk. We do not want that to happen. And that's exactly um what this proposed turnback track location would do. And
location is key. Once again, we are for the service, but the location is the problem with this project. Under the MBTA's non um non-essential project, trains will drop passengers at the Reading station, then depart the station
14 additional times a day headed towards Willow Street, slowly passing right by homes, the Tannerville Elderly Independent Living Center and local schools. And then it idle uh for up to 20 minutes at a time between the Thalen
Bird Sanctuary and brand new Mallet, Sums, and Morgan Conservation Land. All while riders wait for 20 to 30 minutes in severe weather. Then the train heads back to the station to pick up the waiting uh riders. This will add at minimum 7 hours of noise, vibration, and
diesel fumes right in the middle of residential neighborhoods and the conservation wetlands. It's not just an inconvenience. It's a quality of life issue. It's residents who can't open their windows. It's first responders uh delayed by more frequent road closures.
It's the peace and safety of families who thought they were choosing a quiet place to live. And the hardest part, it didn't have to be this way. The RTC has worked in good faith for more than 10 months to offer practical alternatives,
real options that would increase service while minimizing the impact on reading community on the Reading community. We've sent proposals, attended meetings, and asked questions. But time and again, our concerns have been brushed aside and met with incomplete information. For
RTC, this isn't about politics or data points. It's about trust. It's about whether we believe public projects should be done with the communities or railroaded through them, pun intended. As Governor Healey said, um our job is
to protect and strengthen the things we love. That is exactly why we are all standing here today because we love reading. We love the people in it and we believe we can modernize our transit system without sacrificing what makes Reading special. This evening, the RTC
is asking the MBTA and reading officials to ensure that rail modernization efforts are built on transparency, accountability, and genuine collaboration with the Reading residents because progress should bring people together, not divide them. And now,
Aaron. Thanks, Lucas. Hi everyone, my name is Aaron Perry. Uh I'm a husband, a father of two young girls, a lifelong Reading resident, and a fellow member of the RTC. So let's start with what's actually
being proposed to accommodate the MBTA's rail modernization goals. Based on the MBTA's notice of intent, their NOI, which was submitted to the Town of Reading Conservation Commission, the MBTA plans to install 4500 ft of new track. That's just short
of a mile. This turnback track will run right through a stretch of reading that includes conservation land, vernal pools, Parker Middle School, an environmental justice community, and residential backyards.
And to be clear, this isn't a repair or an update to an existing track. It's a major expansion that's designed to double daily train movements by adding 28 new train trips per day.
These additional train movements will start at 5:30 a.m. and will continue until 7:30 p.m. That's 14 hours every weekday. So from an operational standpoint, this means that gates at Ash and Main Street,
Washington Street, and Wuburn Street will now close every 15 minutes to accommodate this increased schedule, adding to an already congested um adding to already congested road crossings.
So once the train makes its way from the depot to where it'll idle, the train will sit there for 30 minutes at a time. And with that additional those additional idling trains per day over that 14-hour period, that adds up to seven hours of diesel engines running
adjacent to a brand new conservation land. Again, every weekday. What this also means is that in order for the trains to move between that idling location and the depot, they'll need to slowly traverse that turnback
track. And again, these movements equate to 28 slowmoving train trips, extending pollution, noise, and vibrations to the surrounding sensitive areas. And the 11 million that this project is
projected to cost, it's paid for by you and me. with taxpayer dollars. But it's important to keep in mind that this project um doesn't include a few things. There's no parking solutions. There's no noise or emissions barriers. And there's
no environmental review. So why does this all matter? Well, it matters because the turnback track it it's not tucked in an industrial zone or an industrial area. It's surrounded by conservation and residential zones.
More specifically, the proposed turnback track traverses a dense cluster of sensitive areas that include conservation land, vernal pools, a wildlife sanctuary, Parker Middle School, a protected aquifer, those zone
2 and zone C sensitive areas along with Tannerville, right? Sensitive neighboring communities. Again, if this isn't bad enough, it's right next the the train is going to be right next to the brand new uh Malays and Morgans's conservation property, a
$5 million conservation project that was completed just one year ago. We'll cover that project in a little bit more depth a little bit later. And then finally, there's going to be a large propane tank that's going to be used as a heating uh source uh to make
sure that the switch is able to operate correctly in the winter months. So, what all this means is that the MBTA's turnback track, it's not just a small redevelopment project. It's a new rail expansion running through protected lands and residential
neighborhoods, doubling train traffic and adding major environmental and quality of life risks. Up next, Mark is going to talk about some safety and traffic issues. Good evening. My name is Mark Agamy. I'm
a lifelong Reading resident and for the last 26 years have lived on Lee Street. In that time, I've learned that the best argument against a really bad idea is to res recite it back very clearly. To help
do that, we've animated the proposed turnback, compressing one hour into one minute. Each hour is the same. That's called clock face service. So, we can simply replay it over and over again. If we replayed it 14 times, that would
simulate 14 hours, which is one day of trains. Uh, before I hit play, one more point. The clock in the middle indicates minutes past the hour. The 12:00 train enters uh inbound from Boston, makes its stop, discharges all
its passengers, and makes its way to the turnback track where it idles. It waits for the inbound train coming from Haveril to do its 12:15 stop at the Reading station. It'll trigger all the gates and then head into Boston. uh
going inbound. That idling train will stay there until the train coming from Boston going outbound uh relieves it from the uh idle track. The 1230 train stops at the station and goes outbound.
The train has to get out of there out of the turnback track because it's been more than 30 minutes now. It will idle again for another 5 minutes at Reading Station for a total of 37 minutes idling. It will then go into Boston uh
achieving its 12:45 stop. As the animation shows, the train on the turnback track must wait for two other trains to pass at 15minute intervals. The first one inbound and then the second one outbound before it re-enters
the main line. In that animation, the turnback train idles for 32 minutes on the new track, then idles for another five minutes at the station for a total of 37 minutes each hour. The maximum limit on a diesel locomotive idling in
one spot in per state law is 30 minutes. The animation shows the turnback train is stationary more than 60% of the time. The train is moving for only 23 minutes per hour. And as a reminder, moving is
the whole point of the train. The MBTA advertised 14 turnbacks, each lasting 30 minutes for a total of seven hours of idling each day, almost triple what is done today. Based on the animation, total idling
time is actually closer to eight and a half hours per day. This simulation assumes idolized conditions, perfect choreography. As the idling train is pinned on the turnback until two trains pass, any
delay on the line will further exceed the legal limits, resulting in fines and penalties. Just last Monday, there was a delay of 10 minutes on the 818 inbound going through Reading. Today, there were four separate trains on the Haver line
delayed by 5 to 20 minutes. Any delay, especially on the outbound train, forces the idling train to wait longer on the turnback track, challenging the 30 minute limit even further. The number of gate closures, according
to the MBTA, will increase to 62 crossings per day at three of the four crossings in Reading. Gates will close every 15 minutes across Maine and Ash Street, Washington Street, and Wuburn Street. The increase at Wuburn Street
will be more than two and a half times what it is now from 24 to 62 per day. Incredibly, almost half of gate closures across Wuburn Street, 28 per day, will be intentionally empty trains carrying
zero passengers on purpose. Willow Street will have a crossing every 30 minutes. All this will lead to significant impacts to traffic and safety. Plotting the proposed schedule over the course of a weekday, you see that the
already frequent crossings will be virtually continuous street closings. In this chart, the first pair of points is Main Street, the circles, current and proposed. The second pair of points, the squares, is Washington Street, current and proposed. The third pair, the
diamonds, is Wuburn Street. A huge impact. Keep in mind that almost half of those red diamonds are intentionally empty trains. The fourth pair, the triangles, is Willow Street, which shows impacts to drop offs at Austin Prep and Barrows
Elementary School. If you think that's a big impact, we have been told by the MBTA that they want to get to 15minute headways, which would mean that gates close every seven and a half minutes, which is a good segue to Ally, who will
be covering the next few slides. Good evening and thank you for being here. My name is Ally Hetler. I am a wife, not a husband. Um, I am the mother of two small children, one and three. Um, and I moved to Reading just about a
year ago. So, as you can imagine, this has been a very interesting way to meet my new neighbors. Um, up behind me is a trivia question. We're going to have a little bit of fun tonight. So, what is one thing in this town that every resident, regardless of
your age, your socioeconomic status, your race, your gender, depends on? The answer is not water. We We know we need water. It's an ambulance. You saw the packet.
So, why is that important? We have one ambulance in the town of Reading and is located on the north side of town at the Main Street Firehouse. If those gates on Main Street are closing every 15 minutes, where the lane
goes from 2 to one, you might remember the road diet from 2020, right outside Bagel World, the emergencies on the west side and the south side of town are going to be put at risk. Your toddler's choking on a grape and they're starting to turn blue.
Your father's having chest pains and you realize he's having a heart attack. You might live alone. You've slipped and you've hit your head and you can't stop bleeding. That ambulance is sitting at Main Street. Can your emergency wait for a
train to pass by? 911 response times will go up. Um, and to listen for yourself, Chris Haley, who at the time was a select board member, as you know, is now our chair, um, had a
little bit of back and forth with Alistair Sawyers, who's the director of rail transformation back in February of 2025. So, one of the first questions from the red station. Frequency is operation. It is
obvious traffic. Now this is going to increase 45 minutes. So we typically work with police
So, you heard it out of the horse's mouth. Um, if you couldn't read it or if you couldn't hear it, I will just read it back to you. No, there has not. It's an operational issue. So, we typically work with police and fire and safety if there are any issues with delays caused
by response times and there are various mitigation measures, but this is not part of the plan. This is not part of the plan. Does that sound to you like they care about this town?
>> Thank you. And I would like to bring Mark back up. I I'll be covering the next two slides on air pollution related to emissions. Before we get to the slide with charts and numbers, uh you'll hear the term NOx, which is a group of gases made of
nitrogen and oxygen. uh either nitric oxide, which is spelled no subliminal message maybe, uh and nitrogen dioxide, which is NO2. Collectively, the group is labeled as N O with an X at the end, and we call that
NOx. You've probably heard of CO2, carbon dioxide, as a greenhouse gas. But NOx is not only a greenhouse gas. It is a nasty pollutant that attacks your lungs. There have been numerous studies that
establish correlations to asthma and allergies and NOx has been linked to lung cancer. I won't read the first two quotes from the National Institute of Health, but the third bullet uh I don't know if Adam is here tonight. Uh he said, "I'm a kid
from East Boston. I grew up next to Logan Airport, so I know what it's like to grow up next to something that gives off fumes. We have the highest asthma rates in the country growing up in East Boston. So, I understand the concerns and why you're here for your children today. That was from the MBTA in
February during a select board meeting uh at town hall in response to our questions. So, here's the chart with the numbers the MBTA presented last month, which they summarized as, hey, look, the emissions are going down across the
board except for quote a slight increase in NOx, which they dismissed. So your question of course is how the pollution can go down running 50% more trains and idling for triple the time. Well, the project creates so much
pollution the MBTA added a variable of the fuel type comparing apples and oranges to mask the impact. In their analysis, the existing condition uses conventional diesel and the proposal assumes a renewable fuel that just started a pilot program on the
Newberry port line just a few months ago. This pilot program started six months after the initial notice of intent submitted last year. Now, first generation biodiesels reduce particullet but do not reduce NOx
emissions. Sometimes they even increase it. That is a problem. Technically, the new fuel being proposed is not biodiesel. It's called hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO, which is basically used cooking oil
that has been processed. HVO may reduce NOx emissions. Some claim up to 18% compared to diesel. Although independent studies show mixed results in some papers 10%, others 3%. Some
papers show no reduction at all. some papers showing slight increase under high loads. Based on how NOx emissions in the chart increased by a factor of exactly 2.1 compared to the increase in idling time of 2.8, it looks like the MBTA assumed a
25% reduction in NOx emissions gallon for gallon. Regardless, even going by the optimistic numbers, using this new fuel, just from this single early action project within the overall rail modernization
initiative, the MBTA projects an additional 24.1 tons of NOX emissions over the town of Reading. Conveniently, the law that triggers additional review defines a significant
net increase as 25 tons per year. I'm sure that's just a coincidence. So, how much pollution is that in practical terms? Someone at an earlier public hearing said, "Well, we breathe exhaust from
lawnmowers. What's the big deal?" I I did find one good use of AI. Uh, it told me this project is equivalent to 45 lawnmowers running simultaneously in your front yard continuously all day,
every day for the entire year. The idling of a diesel locomotive for 30 minutes every hour is equivalent to the NOx emission of 3,760 cars. Although the whole town will be
affected, much of this will be over Parker Middle School and our elderly or disabled neighbors in Tannerville. There's a state law that prohibits you from idling your car on school property for more than one minute unless you're in a moving drop off or pickup line. But
here we are dumping 24 more tons of NOx emissions on a school and assisted living housing. We have a moral obligation to protect those who are most vulnerable. And for those who dream of new shiny
trains with magical fuel, you should know that the MBTA plans to use end of life trains from Newbury Port to fulfill the increased service. Don't get me wrong, it's great the MBTA is evaluating renewable fuels. I love
it. But if you're responsible for assessing the environmental impact of an 11 million project, it's scientifically dishonest to mask the impact of the turnback using optimistic assumptions of a fuel being
used in a pilot study that started a few months earlier. Who is reviewing the MBTA's projections? And just as importantly, who is enforcing the use of the new fuel after the turnback track is built? Can someone
say this new fuel is too expensive, which it currently is, or it's less available, which it currently is, or it's giving us performance problems, whatever the reason, can someone decide to go back to conventional diesel?
If so, all those yellow bars showing the pollution today triple in height. To talk about another form of air pollution, Lucas will talk about noise from sound. Thank you, Mark. Um, so as you can see,
we have a lot of concerns with this project and once again to reiterate the location. So since our smaller butter meeting uh with the MBTA on 99 uh where we presented concerns with the validity of the sound study scope and the data,
the MBTA continues to present this misleading information to state their project is not exceeding sound thresholds. I'm going to point out a few key concerns with the MBTA sound study. The sound study, the first one was performed only at the proposed idling
location within the conservation land seen here as the yellow star behind me. And they placed three sound devices, N1, N2, and N3 um at that location. The red line that I placed up there now
shows the sound study scope did not include sound devices behind Hunt Street, Vine Street, Hancock Street Homes, Washington and High Street homes, Tannerville, and Parker Middle School. You can see the sound study scope did not include approximately 23 of the full
length of this project um within the more densely populated area. These two charts behind me now show the 24-hour study data from sound device N2 and N3. Keep in mind N1 and N2 look
identical. N3 is the only different one. You can clearly see there are differences between these two charts. The MBTA did not include 13 of the 14 idling trains in the data set behind me.
They did not include data of for 28 slowmoving trains to and from the residents or sorry to and from the station behind residents homes. They and Tannerville um as well they did not include data for inbound and outbound
haveral trains passing that idolling train. And just to if you can see on the left hand side around 100 p.m. that's their one idling test. They did not include
that 13 more times in the data set. The MBTA did not apply the Federal Transit Admin uh administration 10 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. 10 decel level penalty on two of the sound devices in the 24hour study. They
only applied it to the sound study data from N the N3 device. To add some perspective to the MBTA's lack of understanding of their own sound studies that they had contracted out, the MBTA has repeatedly claimed this jump in data
in the N3 U chart behind me is due to frogs. Exactly. You cannot tell me that frogs start at 10 p.m. and end at 7 a.m. in the morning. I'm not a biology teacher. If there's one in the house, please
speak at public comment. And oh, by the way, the trains also mysteriously got louder at night with the frogs. Most recently, the MBTA did not record the idling diesel locomotive model and its
GPS location for the idolling test, calling into question if the idling test was even performed in the current in the correct location. To reiterate, the MBTA lost this information.
What do all these missing scope and data items do to the final analysis? They keep the 24hour sound study decel level average lower than it actually is. In the MBTA's own flawed data, sound
device N2 was only four dB away from the stated threshold. We are confident if all the missing sound data that I spoke to just recently are added back in or actually added in I should say the MBTA
will exceed the th the sound threshold. The MBTA has repeatedly shared these sound study results to our reading delegation, to us, to the broader community, and as in these results
appear incomplete, misleading, and downplay the adverse impacts to the entire Reading community. Lastly, the Reading Board of Health listed um sorry, the Board of Health listened to our concerns and on 109
issued a letter to the Conservation Commission and the MBTA requesting they postpone this project uh pro a project's approval until the board of health is able to in to have independent air quality, noise, and vibration studies
performed. And introduce Bob. Hi, my name is Bob Levy. I live at 29 Frank Tana Drive, which is also known as Tanavville. with the air pollution. There are residents at Tanville that have COPD and
other respiratory diseases. We also have residents that are in their 90s and their lungs are not as strong as someone in their 20s. The air pollution put out by the trains will gravely impact them.
The noise pollution is also impact the residents at Tanavville. We enjoy sitting outside during nice weather and have to wait for a train to pass by before continuing our conversations.
This is our time to enjoy our lives and have peace and quiet. But this turnback project will greatly impact our lifestyle. We have people here at Tanavville that
have illnesses that need peace and quiet to recover. I myself go to dialysis for 4 and a half hours three times a week and need at least 3 to four hours of sleep recovery
to recover. The noise pollution created by these trains will greatly impact my recovery. We will not be able to open our windows and breathe fresh air and enjoy the quiet. Being elderly,
the the need for the ambulance is often needed. And with the increased gate closings, we would greatly would greatly impede the response time and impede the
uh and lead to dire consequences. Should only should our only ambulance be on another call, a surrounding town will usually respond. The increased gate respond the increased great clo gate
closings would impede their response time. And to those of the MBTA executive board, if you had parents or loved ones who lived at Tanavville, would you would you want them to live
there? Thank you. All right, we're getting there. I was going to make this section interactive, um, but we'll kind of keep things moving here. So, um, when you read the MBTA's notice of intent, um, you see a pattern.
You see a pattern of assumptions of cutting corners to avoid triggering broader comprehensive reviews. The NOI skips key environmental safeguards and classifies the project as redevelopment avoiding storm water, wildlife, habitat,
and groundwater protections. Again, one of those main assumptions in the NOI is that it classifies this as a redevelopment project. and they do that by using um a rationale because the project is going to be constructed on a historic railed.
However, when you look at the definition of redevelopment, this project doesn't fit. And it doesn't fit because the proposed turnback tract will run through vegetated buffer zones, wetland areas where vegetation has reestablished, and pvious railway access roads. And based
on this, this is actually a new development project which is subject to stricter standards and more thorough reviews. So in addition to the redevelopment claim like we've mentioned, there's no wildlife impact analysis. There's no
analysis to understand the impact idling diesel locomotives will have on our zone 2 and zone C groundwater protection areas. And there's no compliance with mass D storm water standards which are all simply marked as not applicable in the NOI.
The water or the hydraology study that was conducted it happened only in the wintertime skip excuse me skipping spring water high times and vernal pool activity. The exact season when habitat impact is most measurable.
Now, the MBTA notes that fuel and oil drips will be collected using a track pan system. This is something that they have included in the the new NOI that was submitted, but that's only for the locomotive itself, right? Not the entire length of the train, not the entire
length of the track. So, in reality, what are track pans? Track pans are are shallow trays that are designed to catch leaks directly beneath a stationary engine. Track pans are commonly used at layover locations
and can hold around 30 to 70 gallons of oil between the pan and the absorbent material. What they don't do is protect the surrounding ballast and soil from runoff or storm water or contaminants along the
entire length of the 4500 ft turnback track. So, while it sounds like a safety measure, it's really a minimal containment solution that's designed for maintenance yards, not for use within wetland buffer and groundwater
protection zones. So, when you add all of this together, these slow idling trains, the frequent idling, you've created a recipe that becomes a dead zone for habitat and wildlife. Now, we're going to make this
interactive. Who's familiar with the Malay Psalms and and Morgan Conservation? Amazing. Amazing. Keep your hand up if you know why it was created. Do you know the actual reason, but awesome.
This project was built to do what good conservation projects are supposed to do. It solved the need. It stopped neighborhood flooding by creatively capturing storm water. It restored wetlands. It protected the Ipswich River
for future generations. And this was exciting. Like this picture is amazing. Look how happy everybody is smiling up there, right? Um it's a very proud accomplishment. It's a
it's a unique solution, right? And it's something that the town and the conservation commission should be extremely proud of. I really think it's critical to remember how impactful and how important this ribbon cutting was just one year ago.
But honestly, all of this is at stake. The MBTA's proposal undermines the project's $5 million investment to properly handle that storm water, to restore wetlands, to improve the water quality, and to create educational and
natural resources for residents and schools. So again, just to reiterate, the goals of this project were clear, right? Reduce neighborhood flooding, restore biodiversity, improve water quality, and bolster habitat.
Building a diesel turnback track directly adjacent to that site with noise, fumes, and runoff, it directly undermines every dollar of that investment along with every goal of that project.
The bottom image here, you can see a train in the background. That's a rough idea of where that train is going to idle for seven hours a day. Fortunately, the MBTA has agreed to
plant arborites as part of their new NOI submission, but only where the locomotive is situated, not the entire length of the train. So, we can cover one engine, but we can't cover the other six to to seven cars that it's pulling.
I think what's most frustrating about this is that it isn't just about aesthetics. It's really about undoing years of environmental restoration that we as taxpayers have already paid for. Okay, you've made it. We're at the end.
So to close this out, I would be remiss not to recognize and thank the entire RTC group that expands just beyond the five of us. If you've been part of the RTC and the conversation over the last year, can you please raise your hand? And Miss Pat, who's working the door,
she was the trailblazer with Jim, who's not here tonight, but he's watching. Hi, Jim. For almost an entire year, we've been trying to make our voices heard. We've shown the data. We've outlined the safety concerns.
We've walked you through the environmental threat, the noise, the diesel emissions, and the traffic impacts that would ripple across this town. We've talked about what's at stake, not just the wetlands and the crossings, but
our quality of life, our health, and our safety. The Mallet Psalms and Morgan conservation project showed what a good planning can look like. A project that restored the wetlands, managed the storm water, and protected
the Ipswich River wershed. This project, the turnback track, is the opposite of that. It doesn't protect, it disrupts. It doesn't restore, it damages.
And it doesn't serve the residents of Reading. It burdens us. For 335 days, we've waited for this moment to be heard, not in two-minute fragments at public comment, but as a
united community. We're not against the progress. We're for accountability. We're for safety, for clean air, for the kind of thoughtful development that respects the people who live here
in our green community. Based on everything we've discussed, the environmental risk, the traffic impact, the noise, our health and safety,
this project cannot continue and must be rejected. Thank you. We don't have another for a reason, right? Thanks Ally. Um, and now I'd like to provide some opportunity for the MBTA. If anyone
would like to speak, feel free. No, you can come up here. Definitely. and please behave. >> Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ryan Coahol and I'm the chief operating officer for the MBTA. Um, so first off, I want to acknowledge in uh
our appreciation uh for having a community that will come together uh whether it's good for us, bad for us, or in between. There was an image up on the screen a few moments ago that showed a scale. It signifies balance and the MBTA always
believes whatever community we serve, we can strike a balance. And I'm here tonight really just to listen, to listen to your concerns, to watch your presentation uh and to reaffirm that no decision has been made. Tonight was a factf finding
mission. I felt it was very important that I'm here. Uh, I'm joined by executive director of commuter rail, Michael Mueller, and we wanted to hear firsthand. And I will tell you sincerely when I see a community as interested in what we the
MBTA delivers and again, it's not always good. It's not always bad. Sometimes it's in the middle. But community ownership speaks volumes. And again, tonight we're here to listen. Again, as mentioned last Thursday at our board of
directors meeting, no final decision has been made. And so that gives us the opportunity to take all this information back to do what's right for all involved parties. We're going to explore every alternative and we'll be back. Uh I will acknowledge
you have some amazing uh spokespeople who have taken it their own time to come see us in Boston. Uh Lucas, thank you so much. And in closing, uh, I'll just say that the MBTA is always here to be a stakeholder with you, with every
community we serve. We're not always going to agree, but you have our commitment that will work with you to find the balance. So, thank you very much. All right. So, for the public comment portion, we have about 40 people signed
up, which uh obviously isn't going to work for three minutes each. So, um, and I assume some people on these list, uh, accidentally signed in as well. Um, so probably we'll go with Oh,
there's Well, now there's more. Um, yeah, 45 46 47. Um, not 67. Um, so I'll open it up to two minutes a person. We'll see how it goes. Um, just remember
that um there's going to be people with differing opinions and that's okay. That's that's the point of having this meeting here that everybody has an equal opportunity to voice their support or displeasure with the project. So, just try to please keep um things civil so we
can just keep everything moving along. Um, and I will start off with I mean I'm horrible at reading names. Uh, I think it's Alicia Gallagher, 36 Augustus Court. So, two minutes, name and address, and Jane is gonna keep time
down here at the end. Thanks. >> Uh, I'll do that. Uh, so after her is going to be Patra. Good evening. My name is Alicia Gallagher. I reside at 36 Augustus
Court. Select board chairman, Mr. Haley. board members and all neighbors interested in the proposed change of the MBTA schedule. My particular interest is the safe and expeditious travel of the emergency vehicles in town. I am a
professional nurse with 32 years experience working in emergency department. My career started when true emergency care was in its infancy. The old Cadillac ambulance offered a fast ride to an emergency department which may or
may not have even had a doctor on duty. Speed on the road to the hospital was the main tool for the patients recovery. That the sicker or more badly injured the patient was, the faster they drove. in the mid60s due to new life
experience, CPR on scene, radio communication with the emergency department and an enthusiastic culture in the people who embrace these tools. We were ready to do better and we did. So today we have
highly educated, well-trained experts in safe, high-speed vehicles. This provides the patient with the very best care way, way beyond first aid. The paramedics are initiating advanced care to patients
during the rapid transfer. And it is working. Our police and fire professionals are well trained to travel at a speed that is commensurate with the emergency situation and the surrounding conditions. Losing their ability to navigate the
streets quickly will have a negative impact on the care given to the patients and probably their outcome. The already overcrowded main streets are cause for traffic jams occurring on a very regular basis compounded every time
the gates are deployed for the passage of a train. With this in mind, in consideration of the emergency response vehicles, I firmly believe that it would not be prudent to add any further obstruction of street traffic. >> Thank you. >> I respectfully plead protect our superb
emergency team. >> Thank you. >> So, to keep it moving, I'm going to have Jane hold up a piece of paper when it's like 15 seconds. I'll give you this, Jane. Then Pat rally are next followed by
Denise 21 Woodward. >> All right. So nothing from Denise. Uh David, your husband, I assume. Okay. After two minutes address. >> Good evening. Excuse me. My name is Pat
Cryley. I live at 71 Vine Street. I would like to speak on how to monitor the e the diesel engine. Mass law does not allow idling 100 ft from a school to
protect students from dangerous fumes. The federal law allows diesel engines to idle up to 30 minutes, giving off dangerous fumes within 100 ft of elderly, disabled, children, and
families. I assume the federal law did not envision diesel engines idling in residential communities, and especially the environmental justice community for 14 hours.
I asked the select ward in the reading officials, how will you monitor the 30 minutes? We already know day one they're going to be in violation. If they are in violation,
how will it be reported? How will the fines be collected? And how will they be used? Thank you. And after David is uh Kaden 27 Woodward. >> Thank thank you for having me. My name
is David KDo. I live at 21 Woodward A and I've lived there for 48 years. Um one of the more awkward moments of the presentation tonight had to do with the issue of operational uh management. I'm concerned about in that respect
operational costs. I've looked at so as not to give too many details the MTA's uh data that show how many people board the train in Reading to go into Boston on a Wednesday for the entire day. I've looked at the MTA's uh hoped for
increases in ridership based on the turnback project. If you take that data and you multiply it by three because you have people in uh Wakefield and Melrose also getting on the train uh hopefully supposedly
increased ridership and you take full retail uh cost of a a $14 round trip. uh the revenue that the MTA is going to be receiving from this is u easily wiped out by the cost of labor for
extraconductors and engineers. It's also easily wiped out by the cost of additional diesel fuel. It probably is even uh greatly mitigated by the cost of maintenance uh self insurance uh
overtime etc. So the operational cost of this I believe is way out of line in terms of costbenefit ratio. That says nothing about the capital cost of $1 million. I don't believe that that $11 million will ever be paid back. Uh it's
impossible to pay it back with negative revenue. So I'd like to see more about that, but it's just something that's stuck in my mind for a long time. Thank you. So after Kaden, it's uh Stuart and Fred. >> Hi, my name is Kayen Marsowski. I live
at 27 Woodward A. I'm 11 years old and I attend the Parker Middle School here in Reading. I live very close to the train tracks and conservation area and I love spending time biking and exploring nature. People mainly go down to the conservation land to enjoy peace and quiet and that would be disturbed if
trains are polluting the area. I love being outside and want to avoid headaches from bad air. Also, last year the fifth graders from Baris Elementary went on a field trip to the conservation land and are planning to do that again. But if trains are polluting the air,
that could change. We hope to keep our conversation land conservation land nice for everyone. Thank you. after Stuart and Fred is Linda Russo. >> Good evening. My name is Stuart May. I live on Summer Avenue, obviously in
Reading. Um, so I'm here to sort of make a couple of points here, but first of all, I want to thank you all for being part of this process. the RTC have done a great job in bringing us all together to hear what's going on and I appreciate the select board coming as well and supporting um hearing from what we have
to say. Um very recently I saw a a train idling at the station and if you actually be actually there in person with an idling engine it's kind of shocking the amount of noise and vibration an engine
generates. you stand there and watch it and the fumes coming out the top of this. So to me, um, where I live, we live near the conservation area. The concept of actually having an engine that's doing that in the station just doing it in a conservation area just is
just absurd. It just makes absolutely no sense. And we're trying to become more of a green community. And I know the MBTA has plans a long way out to look at electrifying trains having, you know, much cleaner um alternatives. And I know
that's a long way out and it's very very expensive. But a lot of countries have done that already. So there must be a way to start to bring some of that technology that already exists sooner and not bring these older trains back onto these tracks that are going to be sitting in these areas.
My my last point here is um the the the crossings uh Wubman Street itself uh going up from 24 to 62 crossings a day is such a massive increase in the number but it also stop the crossing also goes down on the train coming out
on the northbound line. So when it stops up the station it also goes down one more time as well. So that just the volume of closings that we are all going to experience in the downtown area, it's going to impact everybody. Uh parking,
getting to schools, safety, the whole thing. Thank you. >> Uh so after Fred, it's Linda Russo and then Debbie Harris. Good evening everyone. My name is Fred Hart, 72 Fair View Avenue. First, I want
to start by expressing my profound admiration to the RTC. Uh, I did not have any idea of the extent of your fervor, your involvement, and the immense amount of work that you've put into this. I realize I'm going to be a
bit of a voice in the wilderness here, but maybe I can provide a little counterbalance in the sense of seeing real well probably real benefits to the residents and the businesses in Reading.
if we can somehow achieve 30 minute service into and back from Boston. Many of you probably already know that the Fairmont line and the line to Beverly are already at 30 minute daytime uh
weekday service. And I hope that working together with the MBTA, we can achieve that. And I know that they have attempted in their many meetings to point out the disadvantages or the impracticalities of some of the
alternatives. And I would be disappointed if we have to wait five, six or seven years for this level of service here in Reading. Thank you. >> So after Linda, it's Debbie and then Phil Pacino.
Linda Russo, 55 Hancock Street. My family has lived adjacent to the tracks the majority of my life, and we have never had a complaint about our location, but this project will force us to be living next to a railroad yard
with up to seven hours of idling trains per day. This will be a drastic change to the quality of life to entire neighborhoods. From what I can see of the sound study, these idling trains bring us just about four points below
the allowable decibel limit. What will that decel level reach when a passing train to and from Haveril passes by that other already idling train? That test was never done.
As it is now, as Bob said, when a paint a train passes by, we pause our conversations. It's just what we do. It's not a big deal. But it'll just be ridiculous if it there's also a train idling. If
this happens 28 times a day, does that mean there will be 28 sound violations in a day? and if so, who will police the sound level and impose any and all violations? To anyone that thinks this is not this
is a not in my backyard complaint, you have now heard and seen how this will affect the entire town. It's not just in my backyard. And if you think that this project will make your life easier, I ask you to please reconsider and think
what it would be like if a project was going to dump 25 additional tons of poison per year on your loved ones. If that were to happen to you, I would surely help you fight against it.
So after Debbie and Phil Pacino is Carara Harry. >> Yes. Um Debbie Harris, 90 Wuburn Street. I wasn't really planning to speak, but I am four houses up towards the center of town, diagonally across from um Church
of Good Sheeperd from the train tracks. I was in my yard today for an hour and a half raking leaves. I think five trains came through to idling. I can smell the diesel. I feel for all the people this is going to affect. I also do not
understand why these empty trains have to sit every half hour, every hour. And one time last summer, I was sitting on my front porch trying to read and the traffic was building up in both directions towards St. Agnes, towards the center of town because the train the
gates were down for a good 20 minutes. So finally, I went up to a car. I said, "Do you want me to call the police?" And I did. And the police said, "We didn't even know there was a problem." Apparently, the train was sort of stuck. And no one from the MBTA even contacted
the town of Reading to tell them this. I did. So, I really hope this does not go through. Thank you. So after Phil and Carerry is Thomas Laughlin. Okay. My name is Phil Pacino.
I live at four five Washington Street unit D6. Five Washington Street is on the as you go toward the the Wuben Street toward the tracks. Washington Street is on the left. Bob up there is used to live and went
live at five Washington Street. So he's well known basically from where I sit and I'm on the other other side of Parker Street. I can hear those trains when they idle in the depot right now. Everything that's been presented tonight I can attest to you verify because I've
heard it all. I've heard the noise. I've smelled the things. The only good thing is the train goes by. It's maybe 3, four minutes. Big deal. Sometimes they sit in the the depot for 10 minutes, 15 minutes or so. You hear them, you really can't
have a a conversation unless you close the windows and the slider um and a train goes by, it drowns out my TV. The other thing that I want to mention is the bells. Every time the the dates go down, the bells ring. Now, we're going
to increase the number of bells starting early in the morning. That goes on all the time. My I don't know how my other neighbors that are on Washington Street on my end of Washington Street feels. I see Karen over here, you know, but those bells are going to go more so than now.
Right now, it's maybe two or three hours. Coming here tonight, I came down Wuben Street. It took me 10 minutes to get over the railroad tracks because the train was stopped in there. The other thing is too is basically this is
devaluing the value of my home. It's going to devalue the value of our homes here in all truthfulness here. Now, I don't know what the effect that's going to be. God knows how long I'm going to be here in Reading. Maybe I'll sell and get millions of dollars, but
maybe not at this point. The other thing that and I I hope we I hope the MBTA hears what's been said tonight. I hope we don't get to the situation we're out in the the town of Palmer where they're actually suing the MBTA to stop a
project. Thank you. >> So after Cara Perry and Thomas Laughlin is James Gdawaro. Cara Perry, 55 Hancock Street. So accountability was a theme that came up in the presentation and more specifically the RTC is asking about the
MBB MBTA be held accountable throughout this process. Given that the reading turnback track, double tracking north of Wilmington, and sustained accessibility upgrades in Andover and Balladil are all described by the MBTA as steps towards
achieving 30 minute birectional service on the Haveril line. Can the select board request clarification from the MBTA and Mass Deep EP as to whether these related actions constitute a singlephase project under MEPA?
Specifically, has the MBTA filed or been advised to file a consolidated environmental notification form addressing cumulative impacts for the corridor rather than individual NOIs. I ask this in the spirit of accountability
and holding the MBTA accountable for following the rules put in place to protect our communities. Thank you. >> So after Thomas and James is Sophia Olivara. My name is Jim Praau, proud father of
Lucas Praau. And I want to say that I live in Ipsswitch. And you might say, "What am I doing here?" Well, considering everything that was said, I just want to give you this information.
The commuter train used to go all the way to Newport through Ipsswitch up until around 1976. Then for some reason, service was stopped to Newport. So the turnaround track was now in Ipsswich.
Just south of Yipwood station, there were side tracks where the engines would idle for hours at a time with fumes dispersing in the direction of the wind. On the east side of the tracks, there were numerous homes whose residents had to put up with these
toxic fumes for 22 years. I contacted a very good friend of ours, Carol, who lives in that area. And Luke went to went to school with her son Adam for 22 years. She
in the whole neighborhood, a huge neighborhood, smelt a stench of that fumes. Unbelievable. And you know what she said? But some people might say, "Well, the wind's blowing away today, so I don't have to worry about it." She said, "The
worst thing about these things is when there's no wind. When there's no wind, the stench just sort of slowly just slowly goes around to the whole community and
the stench is unbelievable." So what I want to say that then around 1998 it switch got relief because the MBTA decided to extend the track to new report.
So now everything's back to normal but 22 years they had to put up with it. Thank you. So was Thomas Laughlin here or no? All right. So James Gdawaro
and then after him it's Sophia Jim Gadaro 75 Vine Street. I'd just like to comment on the sound study that was done. My house is about 200 f feet north of the Mineral Street Bridge. And on the
day in question where the sound study was done, the engine was idling behind my house. We're probably 1500 to 2,000 ft from where the uh the recording
devices were. So I question the validity of the sound study. Thank you. So after Sophia, it's uh Cresandra Holmes and Pat Melansen. >> Hi, my name is Sophia Olive and I'm 12
years old and I live on 87 Hancock Street. I live near the conservation land and I am worried that the animals in the conservation land will be harmed by the pollution that comes from the idling train. The fumes, sounds, and vibrations from the engine will make it harmful to all the animals in the
conservation land like deer, coyotes, foxes, birds, and other small animals. This train will be harmful to our conservation land and other parts of our environment. Thank you. So after Cassandra Holmes and Pat
Melansson is Tony from 56 Berkeley Street. >> Hi, I'm Cassandra Holmes. I've lived here for almost 50 years and the town sure has changed in those years. Um, in
addition to the the pollution that I really was not aware of how much there was and will be if this goes through. Um, going downtown at that the train tracks at Washington and Ash.
I mean, I have been down there without any additional stops and I have been seeing the traffic going back through Summer Street. And this isn't even at rush hour. I mean, it is just ridiculous. It's going to stop all the
the the commerce in downtown Reading. We we can't get down there. I'm I'm going to be doing back roads and going up to Wilmington to do my shopping. It It'll be ridiculous. I have a bank down. I have to go to the ATM now that the uh TD
Bank lift and I go down to Walgreens and now that has to be I I wouldn't be able to get there. I mean, if this is going through every half hour, did they say or is it every 15 minutes? I I it's just preposterous. It's going to ruin the
whole town. And uh I don't see any benefit. Thank you. So after Pat and the 56 Berkeley person is uh Christine Park. >> Good evening. I'd like to thank the select board. Thank RTC. I really am not
prepared for this, but I do feel compelled tonight. So bear with me. Um, as a lifetime resident of not only Reading, but of Hancock Street as well, I feel compelled to speak tonight. I not only live but work all
day on Hancock Street. For 37 years, I have provided child care to working parents. And in all honesty, the train is the highlight of our day. When the train goes by, you hear all aboard. We
walk up to the Mineral Street Bridge, we wave, the conductors beep their horn. It's a huge part of our day. Um, we frequently stay outside. I I truly believe that
children learn better, feel better, they're healthier. I have always for 37 years I've had a play-based curriculum. I feel very strongly that with the fumes and the noise, we will be spending a lot
more time inside. But I also fear that I will start to lose my business of 37 years if I can't be outside with six kids, sometimes eight. Uh so that's it. Thank you.
All right. So, after 56 Berkeley person and Christine Parks and then it's David Olivara. >> I'm gonna pass. Thank you. >> Oh, perfect. >> Yep. Christine Christine Parks, 35 Hancock Street. I've been on Hancock
Street for about 30 years now and have never complained about the train. It's very close to our house and we stop our conversation when it goes by. So that's not the issue. But I am concerned as was presented tonight and thank you for everyone for presenting. You did a
fantastic job. Um that the MBTA has taken a peacemail approach to avoid regulations. One of the things that came up is why not do the turnback at the station where it would make the most sense. And the response was then we'd have to be ADA
compliant and we don't have the funding for that. My response is we need to rep prioritize what we're funding because this MBTA is supposed to serve everybody and if we're not ADA compliant we're not serving everybody. So let's relook at how we're doing
things and make our priorities more in line with where they should be. I don't see David 87 Hancock. All right. So, after him is Stefan Herurlets and then Adam Katarino.
>> Hi, my name is David Olivera, 87 Hancock Street. Um, I have a unique perspective because I also work right next to the train tracks and live right next to the train tracks. So, I live and uh live and sleep with the train 24 hours a day. And I see more often than
not two locomotives, four cars, mostly empty all the time. So, I can't even see the justification for the the absurdity of this project. If there if the trains were full of people all the time, and we needed more trains, I could see it, but I just don't see it. Is there any
evidence of the feasibility? Why do we even need trains every 30 minutes? That's all. >> So after Stefan and Adam is John Arena. >> How you doing? I'm Adam Katarino. I live at 83 Prescott Street, 1584 ft from the
train station. Every time the train stops, my house shakes. I live in a historical home, so all my neighbors houses all shake. I'm going be all over the place with this. I have three kids. I have one that goes to Barrows, one that's at the high school, one goes to Little Treasures. I have 40 minutes from
from 7:50 to 8:30 to get them to school. If the train stops twice, I hit it two times of my way back. How's any parent supposed to get these kids to school? Is the MBTA and the town going to work together to create better school schedules? You guys are going to pay for buses for three for three kids? It's
$1,275 a year to put kids on buses. That's ridiculous. You guys going to pay for new buses for this town? I have four family members that are firefighters. Ambulances in this for brand new ambulances are between 350 to $550,000.
If you're going to create more train crossings, you have to have another ambulance. It's unacceptable to have only one. Who's paying for that? Thank you. Uh, so after Stefan and John Arena is Gennady. Um, hi everyone. Stefon Hurlet,
19 Dustin Road. Um, relatively new to reading, moved here last year, loved it. Um, I am personally a train commuter and I commuted to Boston every day and for people like me, this project would of course be very helpful. Now there are many concerns with it and I think uh in
addition to the concerns I think we should begin thinking about what the pathway to yes would look like because uh now the concerns have included things like noise and crossings things that would happen under any increase in service. And so we have to
think about what that will look like, where that money will come from and and if if the town is against in increased surface, if it will mean more noise and more crossings, I think we should be honest about that. Uh in addition, second point, I think we should also
have a conversation as a town about why so many vulnerable communities and locations are located next to a railroad that's been there for 200 years. It's because it's it's cheaper to build there. That's why. And I think maybe we should consider when building further vulnerable places and communities, maybe
we should try doing it not next to a railroad. Thank you. >> After John Arena and Jennady is Tony 11 Appleton. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Most of the discussion tonight has been opinions about >> your address, John. Sorry. 26 Francis,
member of CPDC, member of town meeting, former board of selectman member, former finance committee member. Most of the conversation has been opinions about what should be done. I'd like to ask two questions about what will be done and what can be done. Question one is, what is the consequence
of a negative vote? Should that be the outcome tonight on on the progress or end of this of this project? I'm directing that to you, Chris. >> I'll be going over things at the end, John. >> I'm just asking what the impact of the
town, not not the not the authority, but merely what right the board of selectman has. >> Our vote tonight is merely uh formality. It's loosely held with the conservation and our vote is just to send a uh
message to the MBTA one way or another. >> Thank you. At the end of the day, these are political judgments. We all have opinions. We all pay taxes, but these eventually you just come down to the raw will of the electorate. You've got a good showing here tonight, but you're
also dealing with an organization that does this every day of the week and deals with 363 townships perhaps maximum. So, it's an asymmetric discussion. It's an asymmetric relationship. My second question is to either the RTC or the
board, this was originally classed as a redevelopment. It appears that it's been mclassed. Who classified it? What are the what's the remedy to reclassify it as as it properly should have been? One of the speakers from RTC mentioned that this was coded as a redevelopment
and in doing so it avoided many uh checks and balances. My question is who made that judgment? What recourse is there to reclass it? >> Does the MBTA happen to have an answer for that or can we get one after? >> Was it >> okay?
>> Was it this body? Anyone in this body? >> No, none of us did. All right. Thank you. >> After Gennady and Tony is uh Ron Powell. >> Hi folks, Gennady Pilowski, three Heramman Avenue. Um so I'm a member of the writing climate advisory committee
as well as the town meeting. I'm speaking as a resident, but there's some history with regards to what the climate committee has been doing. Uh we've met with Lucas and other members of what will become RTC in January of this year.
Uh we listened for about an hour, spoke for a little bit longer. Early February, we as a committee drafted and then submitted a letter. Uh we shared it with the select board as well as the state reps. We uh advocated, it's a long
letter, but the three main bulletin points is that we advocated for a study uh study that focuses on greenhouse emissions, on long-term consequences of air quality, and lastly, the noise and vibrations. Uh so that was about 10 months ago now. The study hasn't really
been done. We've seen a handful of measurements, which I guess is something. um the greenhouse emissions as well as the long-term consequences um of the air quality has already been sort of shown in practice uh by RDC but
it hasn't there has been no study done what it means for reading so we would still advocate for that study to be done uh with regards to noise and vibrations there also has not really been done a study there's been a measurement which
is something and that measurement showed that the noise is going up above 50 dBA. It's uh seen in the charts labeled as 51 dBA. I briefly looked and um it does seem that birds in the sanctuary would
end up being disturbed by those noise levels. Uh the threshold is roughly threshold is roughly 50. I don't know what it means for humans or the neighborhood in general. sounds and vibrations. This is not my domain of expertise. I'm in a volunteer position.
I don't do these studies. I would encourage the board and our state reps to push the study forward so we would understand the impact on our neighborhood. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh so after Tony and Ron Powell is Alex
Maza, >> Tony Roakis, 11 Appleton Lane. probably one of the most distant uh speakers to arise tonight in relation to the the train station. Um I can hear the trains running at night um after hours when they're shuttling them back up and down the line. I can hear it. I live over
near Pearl Street. Uh it's that loud. Um second, I can speak to the question about the amphibian callings professionally. Uh their vocalizations will peak between 1 and 3 hours after sundown on warm rainy nights in spring. Um, finally, I would like to ask the
select board to consider the long-term impacts to reading and to look beyond some of the uh the razledazzle that that that the tea is going to offer. Um, we've heard about emergency vehicles, ambulances in particular. They may offer
uh an ambulance for the other side of of Reading, for the um for the west side of Reading. Um, keep in mind that there still will be a burden to the town. The town will have to pay for crews and for staffing and training and supplies. There's a long-term cost. Also, I believe this
project lies handinhand with the uh with the resoning the community MBTA act which recently passed. Um, increased train times is going to put more development pressure on the center of town. That will increase property values which may sound attractive. Um, but for
those of us who have children and are here long term, increased property values means even higher taxes than we're already paying now. I consider that an adverse impact and a detriment to my particular quality of life. Um, also um with increased uh development
around the center of town, which I I know some people here are in favor of, um, there are also additional costs to the town. uh schools which are already bursting at the seams. Um fire, water, there's a whole host of infrastructure, parking. I think the town really needs
to focus on issues that we have before us now. My kids can't even walk to school on a sidewalk because the sidewalks are in such bad shape. We shouldn't be looking so far down the road uh when we have plenty of issues now that that we should be addressing. Thank you. All right. So, I have about I've gone
through two pages, so we have about a pageish left. Uh, so it's Ron Powell, Alex Maza, and then Joseph White. Ron Powell, 328 South Street. Uh, I too live far away from the tracks. I'm here
just to say it's not a nimi issue. It's not just an abutter issue. I fully support the modern rail uh modern rail modernization plan and the MBTA's efforts to provide 30-inut service. I
just don't support this particular project and I encourage the MBTA to consider other alternatives that have been presented like the 93129 um location. I understand that there is some rightaway issues that involve the electric company, but I I you know would
again encourage to go back to revisit that. I do believe that's a better location. I also realize that a lot of these decisions are made at the transit advisory board that the MBTA holds and I encourage the town to appoint uh a
representative to attend either the either from the town or from the select board to attend those meetings because that's where these decisions are ultimately made. Um thank you. So after Alex and Joseph White is Justin Perry.
>> Hi Alex Maza 18 Hanscom. Uh thanks for being here and hearing my thoughts everyone. I don't live very close to the tracks. I live about a half mile away but I do work in downtown Boston and I ride the train every day. I rode the train twice to today including to this
meeting and about 400 times this year. Um I can confirm we do not have a train capacity issue. The last time somebody sat in the seat next to me on the train was when the orange line was closed and the commuter rail was serving uh Oak
Grove to Boston. Uh I can also confirm we don't have a frequency issue. Um, depending on if I'm dropping my kids off at school in the morning or if I need to make it to an early meeting, I have four different trains I can choose from to get to work
within um the window that I need to um leaving between 6 about 6:00 and 9:00 a.m. Um, and then lastly, I can confirm that people really aren't coming to reading on the train to visit our businesses. I see the same residents commuting every
day. Nobody has shopping bags. Um, so I definitely support modernization and, you know, better service, but I also take like to take a rational approach to solving these types of problems. And, you know, given the the trade-offs here, this doesn't feel like
a good decision. And it feels like we're trying to take some shortcuts, but there's not a fire burning. We don't need this train right now. We can take a longer term, better solution that's well thought out. So after Joseph White and Justin Perry
is Jason Russo. >> Hi, my name is Joseph White. I live in 65 Prescott Street, three blocks from the train station. I came here 20 years ago uh to start working in Boston and have depended on the trains for for 20 years. So, I would not want to see a
reduction in service to Reading, which appears to be the case um if this turnback track doesn't get um built. But I understand the concerns of u many of you in the room about sound pollution
and other uh concerns, but I just don't want to see train service reduced. So with that in mind, I would ask the T why they cannot restore train service to a level that existed prior to the pandemic.
In fact, the lower line is already at that level and they don't have problems here like we do. Secondly, if they can't or won't restore service, I would suggest maybe you drop the contract and start working towards
building the second track from Wakefield all the way to Haveril because Reading is in the middle of this line. I'm sure there are plenty of people further on who would love to be able to get to Boston. Um, in any case, I would not like to see
a reduction in service, but restoration of what we had prior to the pandemic. Thank you for letting me speak and thank you for your attention. >> After Justin and Jason is Margaret 1137, >> Justin Perry, 47 Woody Road. I would
like to start by thanking the MBTA for doing something that no politician has done over the last 20 years in this town, which is bring all of us together. So, I greatly appreciate that. Sorry it's under these circumstances. The median value of a single family home
in Reading, Massachusetts is $900,000. 20% of homeowners in the United States whose mortgages are $900,000 or more have both a fixed mortgage and a variable mortgage component. a helil lock or a second mortgage. We have roughly 7,200 single family homes in
this town, which means that at least 20% of these homeowners, 1440 homes and families are literally banking on the value of their home increasing. There are approximately 300 homes within the thousand ft of the track that you
propose to revitalize. Uh, with this service, 4% of the homeowners in this in this town are virtually guaranteed to have the values of their homes plummet. In hearing the words of the MBTA COO tonight, I actually believe and to be genuine. So, thank you. The problem is
that at least to me, it's clear that the MBTA has forced has been forced to face the firing squad here. This project makes no sense. There's no reason for it. And that's the reason why the studies are being ignored and the data is being hidden. It is it because reading citizens work
in Boston? The United States is on the precipice of a commercial real estate default crisis the likes of which no one's ever seen. So who really knows how much we even will need the MBTA in the future? There's no good reason to add service unless you consider that this is the tr to transport the influx of
residents and the NBTA community's agenda has forced down the throats of these cities and towns for years now. If these train tracks that nobody uses has so many strings attached to them, remove them. And when you do, I would ask that
the MBTA make sure they do it on their dime. I would recommend that the select board save $10.5 million of the $11 million and sue the MBTA and the state of Massachusetts to tie this up in litigation until they give up.
Uh, so after Jason and Margaret is John, also at 11:37, Jason Russo, 90 Prospect Street. I've grown up and lived next to the railroad tracks most of my life. Um, now I have a few blocks away, but I want to talk
about why I'm here. I'm here as a business owner, a business owner in Boston. Uh, and we're talking about before COVID levels. I've operated multiple businesses, uh, large offices in town where we used to provide MBTA
and rail cards to our employees as a benefit because that was an attractive way to get people to work for us. Um, that's been about 8 years since I've had anyone request one of those from me. Um we were in Charles Town for many years
uh 50 or so people and uh once the pandemic hit we moved into a new office by the garden and we were all excited to to head there and I can say to you right now that there are maybe two people that
go to the office four times a year. So, as a business owner in Boston for decades, no one from my company is going into the office anymore. And I know that that is
a pretty consistent trend from the other entrepreneurs and business owners that I know. People do not want to go to the office. And the way that you get talent is by not requiring them to go to the office unless you have some sort of
collaboration that needs to be done in person. This is a professional company, technology company. Um it's just not the way business is done anymore. And uh no one's talking about a reduction in schedule. We're talking about just
leaving things the way they are. Um if this is supply and demand, there is no demand. So you do not need to add any more supply. Do we have um Margot from 1137 Maine? >> She left.
>> She left. Did John go with her? >> I'm gonna go with yes. Uh so uh next is Taylor Gregory and then Chris Kell Breezy Taylor Gregory Pleasant Street. I want to thank the RTC for the amount of work
that they've done. This was a lot of information that wasn't clearly covered by the MBTA. I want to express support for the goal of 30 minute service. But with that, I have deep reservations about the data that presented by the MBTA. I would really like to see that the sound study completed again with the
data turned over to the town so that we can also confirm the results. We aren't even sure that the sound study complete was completed accurately and captured the noise where the locomotive is supposed to be. I'm very concerned about uh what saying no to this project means.
MBTA has said that they will do this project in Wakefield. Some of you cheer for that, but please remember that not everybody in this town has a car and can drive. There are people that are relying on the commuter rail and the single bus route that we have to make make it to surrounding towns and into Boston.
Please remember these people when we talk about this project. I hope that we work with the MBTA to find a solution that will work for residents and the MBTA. We should push for noise and pollution mitigation measures and if possible liquidated damages like we just did with the upcoming trash contract. We
need to have a reporting system in place to make sure that the MBTA is holding up their end of the deal. Thank you. So after Chris Calibrizzy is Stefan 38 Minut Street and Joseph Flurry. >> All right. Thank you. Chris Calib 17
Deborra Drive. So it's Calibri, not Calibesi. That's my uh I guess my grandfather trying to stay away from the mafia actually. So >> so be careful. Um I just wanted to say I guess listening to it um I'll just uh I came
here I know that the uh committee up here said that they were for the right more service. Um I guess what I would have liked to seen uh I appreciate all the the work that you've done. Um I don't see anything on the other side. Everything says even if the emissions
weren't an issue everything seems to say that no on train service no on train service. No on train service. Even though the the mission is that you do a support train service, I did go down to Wuburn Street and I know the traffic is something that the town likes to talk about a lot. They also like to talk
about adding parking which increases traffic. But um I timed the the light down there 28 minutes it would be red crossing um on Wuburn Street across the track uh every hour. And so we need to be I think realistic about how much of
the traffic is coming from. And it is pretty much all the traffic. I saw cars backed up without a train, right? Realistic about the traffic is coming from, it's all of us in our cars. Um, and so while there may be a pieces of
that that are attributed to the train, um, most of the traffic is from our cross streets, half of the time a road has to be blocked by a red light because there's a cross street. It's just right. There's no other way to do it. You can't crash cars into each other. Um, so we
just need to be realistic about that. And I think want to echo what somebody else said about what is the what is the yes for this. If we want 30 minute service, not everything can be right against that. If it's really the pollution, then we should attack the pollution um and we should look at those things. And the other thing I just
wanted to came up on the the um the type of development that we had here, I think needed the mitigation for that conservation area because of the destruction that type of development here led to. So >> yes,
>> just super quick to be clear. We had a great conversation at one of the select board meetings and I appreciate >> microphone locus. >> Sorry. >> So again, just to be clear, thank you for our conversation after a select board meeting. I really do. But just to be clear, this meeting was offered to
someone like yourself to present that advocated for the service, but the location and also the MBTA to present alongside us. It wasn't just us. >> So after Stephen and Joseph Flurry is Kyle
Torton Toro, thank you. Hi, my name is Stefan Wenish. Uh 38 Minot Street. Um I'm live close enough to the uh station that when the train goes by, I can feel the windows shake. So I'm a little
familiar with the way things are around there. About 15 years ago, I moved there uh to help with my commute with uh Boston because, you know, I mean, you can't drive into Boston. You got to take the train. Um, a couple of times I've
gotten stuck, you know, waiting for a train and I'm actually glad to see that this is actually something that might help with that. Getting increased service a half hour at a time. That's one bonus, but there's also another bonus, and that's something that's
happening around the entire globe. You may have heard of it. Maybe you think it's no big deal. Maybe it's far away. But let me ask you, when was the last drought that we had here in Reading? When was the last time we had a wildfire in Stonewall? And when was the last time
that Lake Quan in Wakefield froze over? There's a theme here. And that theme is here. You, me, and everyone else in this town pour millions of dollars into this very building, teaching our young men and
women to consider their future. And now when the adults show up, we're supposed to throw that out the window. I think it's time that we should take some of our own advice that we give to our own young people and think about our future. For the representatives of the
MBTA, if you were to electrify this uh rail line, we wouldn't even be here. I think that's something that you've got it in Oak Grove, just bring it up. I mean, they do it everywhere else. I I don't understand the problem. Yes, it's expensive, but you know, you can look
around here. There's a lot of people who would be happy if it were done that way. Thank you. >> After Joseph and Kyle is Jen Allen. >> Thanks. Joseph Flurry, 20 Willow Street. I submit this comment as a resident of Reading, not as an associate member of
the Conservation Commission. My family moved to Reading in 2018 because it because of its balance between great schools and public services, natural open spaces, and excellent transportation access. We rely daily on our personal vehicle, our bikes, and the MBTA commuter rail. And we value that
Reading offers the rare ability to reach anywhere in the state, whether by train, bus, bike, or highway, without sacrificing the daily quality of life improvements that comes from protected conservation land and interacting with open spaces. What's needed now is structure and coordination. So Reading
can manage future transit growth responsibly and to ensure we do not further lose regional rail service from levels we had before 2020 and which we haven't returned to. To that end, I ask the select board to consider three direct actions from within your purview.
One, form a public transit working group. Establish a subcommittee or MBTA transit advisory board delegate to coordinate and inform across the select board, town manager, planning and conservation commissions and reading state delegation. This group or appointee should represent res
residences transit priorities, monitor MBTA and mass modernization efforts and ensure reading representatives are not excluded from future planning advocacy and negotiations which has unfortunately occurred with the MBTA's current rail modernization initiative. Two, please
integrate transit planning into your town's master plan update. Direct town staff to incorporate future MBTA rail and bus service improvements into the next master plan update, identifying how expanded regional rail service could affect access, parking, and commercial growth around Reading Depot while still
safeguarding our open spaces. And three, address the Ash, Bolton, and Main Street single track bottleneck. Please partner with the reading delegation, mass stop and MBTA to resolve this single track constraint whether through Eastern gateway infrastructure planning or a related initiative to allow for double
tracking through reading depot. Again, please ensure that re residents, public transit riders and its natural environment which doesn't have a voice of its own has a real seat at the table as decisions are being made about the future of our local transportation systems. but also know that these local
decisions will have a direct impact on current and future riders, residents, and businesses along the entire Averil Commuter Rail Line. >> Thank you, Joseph. >> So, after Kyle and Jen Allen is Michael Keadoro, 60 Bankrupt.
>> Hello, I'm Kyle Toro of 43 Vine Street. So, I'm a local resident to where the track will be sitting itself. As an architect, I'm also aware that you want to put your money in the best shape to plan for your future. And that is to put the train station in the station itself
and that the MBTA should not be hiding behind or using the excuse that we have to be fully ADA MBA compliant. that a portion of the track can serve all of the community with a high low platform which has been installed in other
stations and that this can be done here if the requirement is to have this additional service in our station. I think that the select board should work with the resources we have in the community to bring the planning board and other committee members that we have
to address this as a whole community. planning borders right now meeting and talking about the easting gateway which is just on the other side of Main Street and is part of the overall future and master planning of reading itself and that these committees should be
addressing this problem which currently they have not. I would request that the planning board be implemented to address how we deal with the parking, how we deal with a high low platform being placed in our station as it exists today
and not extending this as a larger train station all the way down the tracks. Thank you. So after Jen and Michael is uh Alicia Williams. >> Hi uh Jen Allen, Hemlock Road, lifelong resident here in Reading. Um my primary
concern, it's great to hear about you know the impact on the animals and other things, but the people um both the short and long-term health and safety impact. So short-term safety impact, as many have mentioned, one ambulance just not acceptable, especially on the west side.
I live over off Walnut Street in the Redgate area and I have two small children, one that has um pretty significant asthma and usually gets hospitalized about eight times a year for that and another with severe um nut allergies. So unfortunately, we've had
ambulance rides with both kids um over the past five years. And again, I'd be really um very anxious in terms of how we would get them to a hospital in time if there were delays. The other concern is the long-term impact. 50 I believe it was 50 tons more of carcinogenic
emissions. Um we're seeing all over the place increases in rates of cancer. We're hearing about lung cancer and other things. I just for me it's really unacceptable and it's disappointing and I was shocked to hear that the project had even extended to this point with the
concept of not even having a discussion on agreement on air quality testing. Who will be responsible for setting it up? Who's going to be monitoring it? Who's going to be imposing fines when air quality testing is not acceptable? I think it was brought up in another
meeting. If it's not acceptable, who's going to put a stop to it? Is there a way to end the project if the results and the facts are showing that we are having increases in people in the area getting sick? Um, one thing I'd like to mention too, I've also been a um train
uh participant working in Boston for about 20 years and my husband. It's twothirds full. We have never gone back to the same schedule we had before 2020. you go from 5:00 p.m. and you have to wait at North Station to 6:00 p.m. What
happened to the 5:15 train, the 535? I don't think we necessarily need more tracks. We just need to bring the schedule back to what it was before. So, I guess I'd ask that to the MBTA why we can't return back to business as usual back in 2019 before you started changing
it where you had to wait an hour to get a train. Thank you. >> Thanks. Michael 60 branch what passing all right Alicia Williams and then after that it's the last person
on the list anyway is Bryce Chain >> Alicia Williams 40 Mara Lane and 45 High Street at Reading Depot I have a business uh also a town meeting member precinct 8. Thank you to RTC for the presentation. Great job. You should all run for town meeting andor select board.
Thank you. The MBTA is attempting to address its issues by adding more trains, fixing their problems, and creating new problems for us. They could use this funding to enhance ridership without contributing to air pollution or compromising emergency surf services and
our safety. As I've said before, if you build it, they still won't come. There's no data showing that more trains lead to more passengers. The MBTA is disconnected from its market. Simply, they don't know their customer,
who they are, and why and when they are riding. My background is marketing and communications. And with that, I'll give the MBTA free marketing. The real market for trains includes Celtics fans, Bruins fans, uh, Garden Concert goers, along with young people who want to enjoy
Boston nightife. But the commuter rail doesn't cater to those needs, especially since trains stop running before the last song of a concert. leaving the passengers stranded. The MBTA has explained that the train must be inspected and if they leave after a certain time, they won't pass inspection
and it triggers another day inspection. Conductors have told me that they don't want to hold trains, they want to go home. As a business on High Street, I've experienced firsthand how loud and disruptive the trains can be, the constant noise, the rattling of my windows and interrupts conversations,
the literal fumes coming in. This project seems poorly planned and doesn't consider the impact on the community. I implore the MBTA to go back to Mora Healey and find a new place to put this money. Maybe start with ADA compliance. Thank you.
>> So, last on the list is Bryce. >> Thank you. Sorry for holding everyone up here. Um I I've attended a lot of the select board meetings. I've listened to uh a lot of the the comments that folks have had. I first want to thank the RTC for putting on such a compelling
presentation. Um I also appreciate the MBTA MBTA folks for being here tonight. I'm hoping that giving the compelling argument that they've made here today that maybe the MBT. >> Oh, sorry.
>> Just name and address. Sorry. >> Rice Cheney, 1500 street. So I live right next to the conservation land. I would be having these in my backyard. And personally, like I'm I don't want to see this in my backyard. I am I'm worried about the environmental concerns for for me, for my family, for my
neighbors. Um I'm hoping given the compelling argument that they made here today that the MDTA folks would be willing to publicly address each and every one of the concerns that they brought here today. um and do that so that the rest of the writing community will be able to see that too because
we've seen it in such a peace meal uh select board meeting. Two minutes here, five minutes there. The last time we're there was at 9:45 after we listened to a number of different reading issues. So, I'm hoping that they would address each and every one of the compelling concerns that we had because I think we deserve
that as a reading community, especially given the fact that it's been a year and it hasn't been a compelling concern about why we need this. I know a lot of their folks have mentioned this before. At no point have we heard them say, "If you build this turnback, this will result in x amount of new passengers or
percentage or whatever it might be because clearly the trains are empty as it is and we do not need this." I'm also concerned because if we do the turnback track, clearly we're not going to then do a new um new downtown writing station anytime soon because we've already
invested that 12 million. I think we really need that there. We need it for potentially for the businesses there. Um, but really we do not need this in our backyard and I encourage you to address all the concern they had publicly so the rest of the reading communities understand your position
given their needs. Thank you. I'll open it up to anyone else in the room. I guess Vanessa is gonna speak, but if there's anybody else, if you just want to come up and stage in front of the mics just so I can see how many more we have. Um because we are ahead of
schedule for the first time in years. So that's my fault. Uh so two minutes name and address. Um and go ahead. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. You actually answered my first question. Um so first of all, thank you to the RTC for all the work that you've done. Um it has been
tremendous. >> Name and address. Oh, sorry. Uh, Mount Vernon Street. Um, so my question, my comment is actually to the MBTA representatives who are here. Um, I wanted to love this plan. The idea of 30 minute trains would be absolutely
life-changing for our family. I actually drive to Oak Grove because the tea schedule is so unreliable and infrequent for our needs. My husband is frequently late coming home due to the number of cancellations and delays. 30 minutes
would be amazing. That said, given all of the presentations that we have seen, everything from the RTC, the comments and inconsistencies presented by the tea itself has made me opposed to service
that would actually help my family. So that should tell you something about the audience that you are speaking to here. You have turned off people who wanted to support you. Um, the one thing I will note is that T
representatives have threatened to decrease the number of trains less than what we already have if this proposal does not go through. So what that communicates to me is that my family and the thousands of local residents who
rely on the tea are going to be in worse condition if we do not bow to this pres well the presentation that the RTC is opposing. So I would ask that whatever happens going forward that you please consider that this community both
opposes this and wants to support the MBTA. Thank you. Carla, two minutes name and address. Uh >> Carla Nazaro, uh 64 Lawrence Road, um member of the school committee, chair of the Kllum school building committee. I
bring that up because we get a lot of grant money in this town. Um, we recently got a $100,000 grant and purchased in the schools in the in this building a virtual autopsy table which has enhanced our students learning for
our kilum. We're building a new elementary school in town, $130 million project. We've gotten $45 million from the MSBA. We are so grateful for that money. We are so careful with with that
money. That money is going to enhance our lives in this town. This proposal, grantf funded to me hurts our residents. Um it the benefits don't
outweigh the risks, the health concerns. I don't live near the train. I can't imagine living near the train with the the smell of fumes. Um it being near our schools. In my head, I didn't plan to speak tonight and the whole presentation
I keep chant chanting, give it back. Give it back. Give the grant money back to the state and use it for something that's going to help a community. It's just not going to help us. >> On the left, two minutes name and address, please.
>> Thank you. My name is Sarah Fuller. I live at 24 Pineville A in Reading and I um am also standing up um asking that the select board oppose this plan. Um I have a six-year-old daughter, Samantha Fuller, also lives at 24 Pineville with
very severe asthma and this would cut us off from that ambulance. Um it makes me tremendously concerned for my daughter's well-being, for our ability to keep her safe. Um and also we are pretty far away from the train and still hear and feel
the train. And so this uh increase would uh put us at risk. It would put Sam at risk and uh we're asking that it's opposed >> on the right hand side. >> I'm Laurel McCarthy. I live at 182 West Street. Um was not planning to speak
today, but I am a 17-year resident of Reading. Um I've always been a supporter of public transportation. Um, but what this is, it's just it's not right. I actually was shocked and saddened when I learned that it had
gotten as far as it had because I thought our town cared about the health and safety of all of our residents. I thought it'd never come to something like this. This would even be a consideration. Um, so again, this is the first town meeting I've ever spoken at,
but even attended in person because I feel this strongly. I'm really asked that it would even be up for consideration. I think this cost savings that it's giving to the MBTA, it's just not worth the health and the cost that you're putting on the backs of
the residents, property values, schools, as everyone's spoken about, traffic effects, none of that compares to the health of our citizens. Marian >> Maryanne Downing 13 Heather Drive member of the finance committee in town meeting
but I'm speaking as an individual and I'm not going to go over all the particular concerns about this product project. I think they've been well addressed. I want to speak to the deja vu I'm seeing in this room from something that happened 23 years ago. Some of you who who've been here as long
as me might remember another time when a state agency was going to try to impose something on our community and that was back when Mass Highway wanted to put in the flyovers and we as a community rose up with our representatives. We even had local news coverage and they went back
to the drawing board and there was no shame in it. They never ended up building something. They found other adjustments like some of the lane widening. And that project at that time was going to take a hundred homes by eminent domain in Wuburn, Stonum, and
Reading. Most of them in Reading. And the residents told Mass Highway, they just like you guys, they came up with lots of scientific reasons and traffic adjustment reasons, but there was no shame in going back to the drawing board
and taking another look. And they had federal money on the line. They had a whole plan and it stopped and I think we have the power here. Thank you. >> On the right hand side. >> Hi Amy Miranda. I live in 98 Wuburn
Street. It's three houses down from the reading deep from the Wuburn Street depot. And um I just want to speak a little bit about the biodiesel feasibility to put diesel as opposed to biodiesel. As Mark was saying that it was a proposal from the train. I used to
work for the department of energy in the office of energy efficiency and renewable energy for eight years. And one of our projects was to promote the consumption of biodiesel that comes from lard grease anything like that. And I
can attest to how in from 2000 to 2008 there were big projects and big money given from the federal government to universities to schools to um big corporations to make this happen. And in
2008 200 2020 we said that in 2025 about 20% or 30% of our um um diesel trucks will be running on biodeiesel and that is not feasible. I do not see how biodiesel is a good proposal for any trains. People can't even tell when you
use diesel as opposed to biodiesel. They're going to put diesel and they're going to tell you they're using biodeiesel. That is not a viable and a feasible option in my point of view being a chemical engineer and professional in this field. Hi, my name is Erin Olivera uh 87
Hancock Street and I am Jim Riley's daughter. Um, I'm just speaking on behalf of him because he is enjoying Ireland at this time. Um, lucky him. Um, but I am here to stand up on his behalf and say we do not want this in our
backyards. Reading is not a railard. Um, this diesel train will idle directly behind my home um upwards to 12 to 15 hours a day. Um, I'm more concerned about the diesel fumes in the leakage
from the diesel engines into the cons conservation land that directly abuts our home. Um, we have no issues with ride the train or the MBTA. Um, but this is just not a feasible project for this town. We have zero increase in ridership. So, increasing trains back
and forth every 30 minutes is a waste of the MBTA's time and every single resident in this town's time. We are not a railard. Please do not park your diesel engines behind our homes. Go >> ahead.
Uh, good evening. Scott Tezac, 123 Wuburn Street. I kind of live at the parking lot for the train station. Um, so I'm very familiar with this. I've lived there 20 years. I don't understand the need based on the wrership, especially the disappointment of not getting back to the prepand pandemic
levels. We bought our house to commute into the Boston. You know, we should get back to that level. Don't hear concessions from the T on what they're going to do. You've got very different engines. We occasionally hear the quiet ones. We know they're very quiet. Why don't those come up in a in a reading
that you want it that bad? But I haven't heard the case on why this needs to take place and I don't think a number of other people need to be in a butter like I am with the extension of this program. Anybody else? Okay, one more. Two more. One more.
Two minutes. Name and address. >> Thank you. Joy Bolio, precinct 7, town meeting member, 73 Grand Street. I also own a business right across the street from the train station. I'm a little unclear as to what tonight's vote will accomplish. Could you explain that to
me? >> It's basically just a formality like I mentioned to Mr. arena earlier that it's the um whether or not the select board is going to um either support this or not, but it's merely a formality and to
send a message to the MBTA and uh the people that elected us to um add your voices to the equation. So, that's all it is. And it's loosely tied to the conservation committee approving a permit, but they're kind hands are kind of tied
where they uh have to actually say yes to it. As long as it checks all the boxes that they have and it's not long- winded with all the other things that we've put up there, uh that they can ignore all of it. So, >> so my question then is, can the select
board have any impact at all tonight on what the MBTA is doing? >> I think the largest crowd I've seen in this building beyond uh the RMHS drama clubs and other shows uh I think sends
its own message more than I'm going to. So the MBTA, we we are telling them that we don't like it, but we don't really have a leg to stand on. Am I understanding that? >> There's been other stuff happening in the background. I'm going to briefly bring it up uh during my remarks, but um
if the MBTA wants to do this, the MBTA can do this, and there's nothing that we can do about it. >> We could put Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Before I open up to the board.
Um, all right. So, before I uh uh open up to the board members, I just want to uh bring up that uh I spoke with Representative Rich Hagerty. He couldn't be here tonight. Um him and Brad Jones both sent a letter to the MBTA.
um objecting to the turnback track location. Um and they both wish they could have been here tonight, but you know, unfortunately scheduling things happen. Um so I just wanted to put on the record that they also opposed it. The MBTA's got their letter and they um have been also advocating behind the
scenes for this. Um and then I will open it up to the board now. I guess I can start with you Karen on the end. Other Karen, >> I'm going in order.
>> You can get up or I can give you the mic. Whatever you want. >> Uh, thank you. Thank you all for your hard work. A lot of this goes over my head. I'm not an engineer. I don't know anything. But, um, thank you for coming tonight. I appreciate it. I know it's
hard and um everyone's been pretty respectful tonight. So, thank you for coming. I guess my first comment is that I moved here over 30 years ago because of the train. I drew a circle on the map. 128 was the line and the mouse pike was the cutoff and that's where we
ended. It had nothing to do with schools. I knew nothing about reading and I got incredibly lucky with our choice. Um I was a huge train commuter. I still do commute into Boston and this is a very difficult decision um from my
point of view because I would love 30-minute trains. Um I think the town first I want to clear something up and I think that the fireman can we have more than one ambulance. Every fire fire truck is is an ambulance.
Correct. So, I want to take that fear away from everybody because we've got plenty of very qualified people that can help your families. Um, that being said, I now can't remember where I was
>> 30 years ago moving. Um, wait, let me look at my notes. >> Oh, this is incredibly difficult because I would love 30-minute trains. Um, I don't think it's an issue of whether we build it, they'll come because I myself would take the train more often if it was every 30 minutes. Sometimes now it
can take me two hours to commute based on the schedule. It could be delayed, all this other stuff. So, I think that that really shouldn't be a deciding factor in this is whether or not they'll show up if the trains run. Um, people will use trains. There's a lot of people with a lot of different schedules, my daughter being one of them where she
starts her job midday and comes home late at night. So, I think that it should be it's important to consider the people that you may not see getting on and off the train, but they do use the train. Um, I think that also, um, my office in Boston, it's optional for people to come in, but a lot of people
do come in, and I know there's a lot of companies that are asking people to come in more. So, I think that eventually, who knows what the future will hold in that aspect, but I do think it's important to consider that people still do commute into Boston and they still commute in to go out at night or late
afternoon doctor's appointments. So, people are commuting into Boston. Um, I think it's also important to remember that our town is situated right along 93 and right along 128 and we have more air pollution than anybody even realizes. I
live near the train and I live near 129 and the traffic on 129 in Salem Street is horrific several times a day where people are just stalled for hours. So I think that there's traffic everywhere in our town and I think it would be great if we decided that as a as a world that
we could be get in our cars less and trains are the solution to that. I'm not necessarily saying I support this project, but I do support conserving less cars in the road. Um, and the only way to do that is as offer alternate means of of transportation.
>> Uh, I think that's all I have to say. >> Thanks, Carlo. >> All right. Carlo Bachi, Main Street, member of the select board. I want to thank the outstanding work of RTC and
everyone else that's been involved behind the scenes. I know it's been a lot of work. I want to commend the T for being here in a very, you know, negative but not hostile environment. That takes a lot of guts to come to these meetings and they've come to conservation to come to our meetings. So, I applaud them for
being here. As as a previous speaker said, I thought the COO was very genuine and and is going to take this back. uh given all that you know I have been a small business owner since 1989 and this is out of all the issues and
the great speakers great comments great data it's supply and demand for me at the end of the day the pollution is important the safety is important the neighborhood the environment mlette all that's important but it's supply and demand and I forget the gentleman who
brought up the cost and cost benefit that's the way I look at things we look five years 10 years 15 years down the road. So, I'm hoping that T was listening tonight to all these concerns and I know they are and I and I think there's a resolution to this. I again I
applaud this neighborhood and all the people and and I wanted to say something earlier. There was about 350 people in this room. I counted. Okay, a lot left. But I was going to take a poll on how many saw this presentation for the first time and my guess it would have been a
good 20 30 40% that have seen this presentation for the first time and I think that's why a lot of people came. So um as I agree with my colleague as far as the service aspect but I am totally against this project. I live in
downtown. I can hear the train. I'm few hundred yards from the depot. Uh, it it's just I wish we had a vote. I wish we had a vote because I would have voted no. Thank you. Hi everyone. Sorry. Hi everyone. Melissa Murphy, select board member uh Van
Nenro. I cannot thank the RCT enough for all the work they have done for this community and I think they really need a round of applause because they have put so much time and effort. When this first came in front of our board, I
did not like it from the get-go. I did not like how it was presented to the town. Actually, I take that back. it wasn't presented to the town. It was kind of they tried to like sneak it in and bring it in front of conservation without contacting our town manager without uh notifying me of butters. So,
from the get-go, it's put a really bad taste in all of our mouths and that's very unfortunate. I am not against train service. I used to commute into Boston every single day and it was one of the reasons we actually moved to Reading. But this project is not appropriate for
our town. There is no data that supports 30 minute service from reading. I believe someone mentioned the Beverly line is but I believe only the Ashmont line does 30 minutes current day and Ashmore I'm sorry Fairmont I apologize.
Um that train goes through the city of Boston. It starts at Salt Station area and it goes to Roslandale only through the city of Boston. So that makes sense to me. But this does not make sense to me. And especially with all of the
negative effects to our residents, the diesel concerns, the Mallette SAMS project, that's $4 million of federal and state money that went into that project. The fact the MBTA didn't reach out to the MVP project
here in Massachusetts on that was shocking to me. That's state money. I mean, it's just baffling to me. I do not support this project. I appreciate the MBTA coming here tonight. I appreciate all the residents that came here
tonight. And I'm hoping the MBTA is listening to the residents of this town and our concerns because the health concerns and the concerns over traffic are real. And if they're going to push
forward, I feel like we as a town need to push back harder. And I'm not sure what that looks like, but it will be something. But thank you everyone. >> Good evening. Karen Herrick, member of the select board, um town meeting member, precinct 8, past member of the
finance committee. And um so I I also wanted to add my thanks to the many many residents who came here and invested the time to to share with the board and with the MBTA and and with our staff their concerns about this project. I would
echo Karen's uh comments earlier that this is this is difficult. Um, there are real valid concerns with this project and and from from the way we found out about it to the the impact and and lack of studies that have been done
thus far and how we will deal with the impact to the the gentleman from Ipsswitch who talked about it going on for 22 years. Um, so this is really difficult because I do support better service. I it was
good to hear from so many residents talking about we as a first step we need to restore the service that we lost and I hear from my own daughter who commutes by commuter rail every day that the service isn't available it's incredibly
unreliable so she goes to Wuburn every day so I've said you know it's a great product over there it's a shorter trip there's plenty of parking it's more reliable than this line so so that is why this is difficult for me But as elected officials um although we have no
official say um as was noted, it's it's important that we um listen and respond to the concerns of the residents. So that's why this is a difficult decision because we need to modernize the tea. We need to see those electric trains. Um we
need to see better service for a lot of reasons, not just for our community, for the communities north of us. And um so so are what how no matter how we vote tonight um I think what we need to do is move forward with the MBTA in a more
collaborative process. We did have one resident who has um brought up a number of times in conversations that we could have a an MBTA advisory committee here on our side an official one. And we also I know we have uh delegates to your board of directors and I'm not sure how
involved we've been and and that's a mistake that's a mistake on our part but something I think we could correct. So thank you. So, thank you to all my fellow board members uh for for showing up here on such a uh important project, an off
meeting kind of thing. That seems to be the norm lately, but there's lots of important issues going on in our town. Um, and obviously, thank you to the RTC for putting this together. Um, I've learned a lot more from this about trains and the environment and I have
asthma too and I had no idea about nitrous oxide and all this other bad stuff. Um, so I I sympathize with them uh in this scenario and I I do regret that it is a mere formality our
vote in a couple minutes here. But like I said, I I think the showing in this room was um you know, the best thing that could have happened. Nobody would have known how many people were coming here, 10, 20, 100. It could have been
five people and then just us up here and the team would have walked away and counted that as a win because I would have. Um but not with the amount of people that were in here. Hopefully they do take this seriously and just see that, you know, uh, our vote tonight is
more on the location as opposed to the project overall. Um, I'm compromising because I I if it was up to me, I would oppose the thing entirely because the diesel is still going to exist whether or not it's behind their house or mine
or anywhere else. Um, so I think more has to be done with that aspect. It's not within our purview. Um, but you know, it is what it is, unfortunately. Um, but seeing all the new faces tonight here in the audience, I think there's just hope for reading in general. Um,
hearing the the youth speak, Kaden and, uh, Sophia, it's just good to mispronounce half the people's names here instead of the same old ones that I see all the time. Um, and and that's what this is about. So hopefully the MBTA realizes this. This is not the
regular crowd. I have no idea who half these people are and I won't after I leave this room. Hopefully I do in the future. As someone else mentioned, run for select board, take my spot someday. It'll be fantastic. You'll love it. It's It's all good things up here. Um, but
I'm in the unique position. My office is at Two Haven Street. It overlooks the train depot. I don't know if anyone else here is that close, uh, other than me. Um, not that it's a good thing, but I have the unique advantage of hearing the
trains 247 over there because, you know, I'm at work all day. And after a while of being there, the only time I hear them is when they're doing the changeovers at like 12:38 or whatever when they're idling there for a half hour. And it is beyond obnoxious because
I actually pay attention to that. And you know, I've been there for a couple years, and that's the only time I hear these trains is during those changeovers when they're idling there forever. And these people are going to hear it the entire day. I don't even know how you
can operate like that. I saw a comment on Facebook that it's just white noise. This ain't white noise. I I don't know what to tell you. We heard the audio here. It's even worse in person. But once again, I'm compromising. And if I could put it at the train depot and we
had all the magic wands, I put it right behind uh where it's supposed to be at a train depot. And I bought a condo overlooking a train depot. Whatever you guys do with trains goes at the train depot. Like I have no argument there. Um
so I've just been against this uh from the beginning. Back in February, I think there was a petition started. it it didn't get brought up, but that has I think 1675 signatures. Uh when I looked earlier just to see I'm sure there's other people that were watching this uh
on RCTV also from home. Um so I I really think that the MPTA has to go to back to the drawing board on this. It's it's not for right for our town. It's not right for this specific location. And I'm sure
you can sharpen your pencils and find somewhere else to put this. Like I think Ron Paul mentioned the whole 93129 thing up near Causeway Road in the uh overpass that's over there. There's some legalities with uh the light company or
something with land, but you would not be here. There'd be no push back if you just did whatever because you're doing it to us. Just do it to them, too. Like what stops you from doing it? So, um I think I've gone on long enough. So, unless any other board members had
anything, um I think we should just go right to the vote on this which so the >> we all needed that. So I know the motion the motion does not include the word location
>> at the end of each sentence. >> Move that the board oppose the MBTA turnback track project location. >> Second by Melissa. Any discussion? I will take a roll call vote. Uh Karen Heric. >> Yes. >> Karen Rose Gillis.
>> Yes. Carlo Botri, >> yes. >> Melissa Murphy, >> yes. >> And Chris Haley is an enthusiastic. Yes. So, we have one more motion left to adjourn. Um, and just try to keep it peaceful after the fact. Maybe they can
leave first. I don't know. Um, Karen. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Seconded by Melissa. All those in favor? 5-0. Thank you everybody for coming out.