Town Meeting On Board with Quiet Zone Funding

May 14, 2026
• Special Town Meeting approved $8.2 million in borrowing for the construction of Quiet Zone infrastructure at five of the town’s six at-grade railroad crossings.

For Lars Unhjem, the potential for train horn relief nearly brought him to tears.

Following the successful passage of the Quiet Zone funding at Town Meeting on Monday, Unhjem, a member of Safer Quieter Needham, said “people are just jubilant.”

“I’m ready to start crying,” he told the Select Board during public comment at its Tuesday meeting.

Unhjem and several other residents spoke during Town Meeting in favor of the $8.2 million allocation toward upgrading equipment to federal standards to reduce horn sounding. That construction will occur at five of the town’s six at-grade crossings. The sixth, at the Needham Golf Club, is a private crossing and is thereby not eligible for such work.

Two-thirds of Needham residents live within a mile of a crossing, Select Board member Cathy Dowd said Monday. With the funding, Dowd said crossings will be safer, the business district will attract development and property values could be positively impacted.

“The board has heard loud and clear from residents that they need relief from the noise of train horns, and we agree that this is a health and quality of life issue of the highest priority,” Dowd said.

The train horns can reach more than 100 decibels. Town Meeting approved $750,000 in design funds in May 2024.

Needham’s Commuter Rail crossings are at West Street, Rosemary Street, May Street, Great Plain Avenue and Oak Street. At the golf course, the town is conducting a feasibility study to determine how it may construct a culvert there. A seasonal closure at that crossing will start this winter and run from December 1 to March 1.

The article also received support from the Finance Committee, who recognized the significant capital investment but decided the price was worth the quality of life improvements, necessary safety upgrades and future rising costs.

Town Meeting member Mark Gluesing motioned to refer the article back to the Select Board to more firmly determine cost. In his 33 years as a Needham resident, Gluesing said he hasn’t heard of any safety incidents involving the railroad tracks.

“When I first moved to town, we looked up some houses on some busy roads, we looked at some houses on quiet roads, and we chose to buy a house on a quiet road,” Gluesing said. “I paid a little more, I got a little less, but it’s a choice that we all make when we first select our houses and where we’re going to live.”

Planning Board member Justin McCullen and former board member Paul Alpert both said referring the article back would incur higher costs. McCullen said it’s Town Meeting’s responsibility “to take those constituent voices seriously.”

“We live in inflationary times. If we wait, if we refer this and we wait another six months, year, that $8.2 million is going to go up even more,” Alpert said. “Let’s spend the money and let’s get it done before it costs us even more.”

The funding request was initially scheduled for a vote at the October Town Meeting before the article was pulled. At the time, town leadership pointed to insufficient communication with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The project is now at 30% design.

Others questioned stopping MBTA service at Needham Junction, thereby eliminating the crossings in question, but such a decision is the T’s to make, Dowd said.

Gluesing’s motion to refer failed, and the $8.2 million passed by two-thirds on a voice vote.

On Tuesday, the Select Board signed off on a cooperation agreement with the MBTA to install such equipment. Chair Heidi Frail expressed her excitement.

“It’s such a huge achievement,” she said.