Quiet Zone Cut from Town Meeting Warrant
September 25, 2025
• Select Board members called the situation “disappointing,” and the timeline for future consideration remains unclear.
Due to a lack of sufficient communication from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, town officials said they had to remove a funding request for a quiet zone from the October Town Meeting warrant.
Speaking with the Select Board Wednesday, Town Manager Katie King said the MBTA, who owns the actual infrastructure for the Commuter Rail, failed to provide enough information for Needham to move beyond a 10% design. The town has also not heard back from Keolis, the company who operates the T infrastructure.
Even still, King said there was a long way to go before the project could become a reality.
“I’d say probably as importantly, we did not get the guidance from Keolis or the MBTA that we needed to understand how we would move forward,” she said, “[and] even if we had design, to actually construct this on their property in partnership with them, and get a real understanding of what that project agreement would look like.”
The Quiet Zone Working Group decided to scrap the warrant article last week. King, in her update to the Select Board, said the town can’t provide a timeline, since it’s dependent on when they hear from the MBTA.
Marianne Cooley, a member of the working group, said it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
“Understanding all that, we’re going to have to figure out what the route might be to get support for the citizens of Needham, who, frankly, I think should be treated better than we’re being treated in this conversation,” Cooley said at Wednesday’s meeting. “But it’s going to take more than we’ve been able to muster so far, despite everyone’s best efforts and outreach through any available channel we could find. It is disappointing.”
Asked whether the funding could return next spring at Town Meeting, Cooley said she’s unsure.
Without more details from the MBTA and Keolis, “assumptions had to be made,” Director of Public Works Carys Lustig said, “and those assumptions could potentially be incorrect.” The current estimated cost — which mostly covers five crossing signals and sidewalk improvements and resurfacing — would be $5.85 million, but that number could increase to $7.6 million with 30% design contingency, according to consultant Tighe & Bond.
The quiet zone effort would address the areas in town through which the Needham Line of the Commuter Rail passes. In doing so, proponents aim to improve quality of life by eliminating train horns.
A $3.5 million funding allocation for a quiet zone was also pulled from the May Town Meeting warrant. In May 2024, Town Meeting approved $750,000 for design work for quiet zones at five of the six train-grade crossings in town.
Cooley said the working group “had high hopes again” a few weeks ago — she was likely referring to a meeting between Needham leaders and a top MBTA official in August — but “those hopes are now dashed.”
Select Board member Kevin Keane shared similar sentiments. “This is complicated, and it’s disappointing,” he said.
The MBTA also does not include the Needham corridor in its current capital plan, Lustig said, despite the fact that “their infrastructure that we have is beyond its useful life.”
Upgrades to the traffic signals would create a safer, more integrated intersection, she said. Though infrequent, there have been gate system failures in Needham in the past, she added.
“I honestly think the MBTA did not seem to have a strategy for making necessary upgrades on our particular corridor… They would be pressed to try to resolve it, because the equipment isn’t necessarily there,” Lustig said, “so we would be maybe helping in the future, if we ever had an issue with the system potentially going down for some period of time.”
