An experiment began this past Monday to find out how traffic would be impacted when Lorraine Avenue’s intersection with the railroad tracks was closed off to cars.
Municipal officials are giving the scenario a try for about two weeks. If it doesn’t cause too much havoc, then drivers on Lorraine Avenue might never be stuck waiting for a train to pass again.
Closing any of Montclair’s 12 roadway-railway intersections would go far in convincing state and federal transportation overseers that the township is a strong candidate for keeping its "quiet zone," or section of railroad where trains don’t routinely blow their horns at crossings. Montclair has until June 2010 to put safety measures in place to render its current 7 p.m.-to-7-a.m. ban permanent.
To qualify, the township must rack up a certain number of points on the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) safety rating system, Township Manager Joseph Hartnett said. No safety improvement carries a higher point value than sealing off a crossing, Hartnett said.
"Nothing makes a crossing safer than closing it," Hartnett said.
Consultants who looked at all Montclair’s crossings told municipal officials that closing Lorraine Avenue’s intersection with the train line, at a spot just north of the Upper Montclair Train Station, would have "the least deleterious impact" of closing any of the other crossings, the township manager said.
This and next week’s test should either prove or debunk that theory.
"There were some lingering concerns about the effect it would have during rush hour," Hartnett said. "It’s already a pretty congested area."
The decision to hold this test run was made over the summer, but officials waited until school was back in session, figuring that they wouldn’t get a proper reading of the situation without factoring in school traffic.
Hartnett said the main issue is how much traffic backs up at the signals where Lorraine and Bellevue avenues intersect with Valley Road. Municipal workers will be monitoring the conditions at those hot spots, particularly during morning and evening peak hours, around lunchtime on weekdays, and on Saturdays as shoppers head to the stores in the Upper Montclair Business District, Hartnett said.
He was uncertain how many points the FRA would award the municipality for closing the avenue. But, if it is not done, then that could come "pretty close" to preventing the quiet zone from being continued in perpetuity, Hartnett said.
As an added bonus, Hartnett said that if Montclair keeps Lorraine Avenue closed to vehicular traffic, then NJ Transit might shoulder more of the costs for other safety enhancements that are necessary for the quiet zone to take effect.
