The picture shows a gravel truck crossing the railroad tracks last summer on its way to the dock. Imagine twelve of these vehicles backed up on Front Street unable to cross the tracks. That's exactly what happened this morning.
According to an eyewitness, the southbound train that arrives in Hudson at 6:45 a.m. broke down. Because the disabled train was in the station, the crossing gates remained closed. By 6:50 a.m., about a hundred people from that train were waiting on the platform, and two or three trucks were waiting to cross the tracks. By 7:10, there were eight trucks, and people arriving by car to catch the 7:20 had trouble getting past the trucks to make their way to the parking lot. When the 7:20 arrived and the waiting people boarded the train, there were ten trucks on Front Street waiting to cross the tracks. By 7:30, when CSX manually opened the gates (there was still a stalled train in the station), the idling trucks on Front Street numbered a dozen and were backed up all the way to Ferry Street.
This is the weakest link in the revitalization plan for keeping SLC/Holcim/O&G up and running.
ReplyDeleteNo need to build roads through the South Bay or around L & B. All that needs to be done is a directive from CSX that this crossing is not available - like they are doing up and down the valley corridor. People are losing their historic homes and others cannot reach the river because of CSX's rulings.. Here's an opportunity for CSX to rise to the occasion and drive a spike through the heart of this foreign corporations bloodless heart.
A quick Google search reveals that O&G is such a horrible company that it may be barred from working on any further projects in its home state of Connecticut.
ReplyDeleteLinky goodness here:
http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2010/11/12/news/doc4cdbff072512b115557669.txt
It appears that blatant disregard for their own workers' health and safety is another hallmark of O&G's rather ruthless style of doing business. From the Register Citizen:
"On Aug. 3, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited O&G for 142 violations—117 willful, 22 serious and three “other”—in the accident that killed six workers and injured 50. A subcontractor was using natural gas to purge a gas line when the gas ignited. The Feb. 7 explosion could be felt for miles. Gov. M. Jodi Rell later banned using natural gas to purge lines and lawsuits have been filed."
I encourage you to read the entire article--it tells the whole story and links to the OSHA safety report as well.
O&G has such a poor track record it makes one wonder, I mean REALLY wonder why the City of Hudson seems to be protecting their access to our waterfront above and beyond anythng else happening on the waterfrong, like real planning for successful development. Why? What is going on?
Thanks, Dan, for this comment. Back in September, Gossips published the link to a Fortune magazine expose about this explosion, which occurred on February 7, 2010. Thank you for providing the link to this article.
ReplyDeleteWhy? As they say, "follow the money."
ReplyDelete