Silence Is Golden

$1.5 million is being spent on making a train crossing in Edison silent. Talk about silence costing its weight in gold. This story hits closer to home for me because of two reasons. One, I go over that crossing to and from work and for a month I am going to have to take a detour that will add around 10 minutes to my trip. Two, I actually live close enough to hear the whistle of the train when it goes through the crossing. I believe the train whistles add character and culture to the local neighborhood. I find it to be a welcoming sound. Obviously others do not. But is it worth $1.5 million in this economy to make that crossing silent?

No!

The article doesn't go into great detail but my best educated guess is that Edison got some federal stimulus funds to spend on transportation and this is the best idea they came up with. The stimulus package does not allow the local government to decide what to do with the money. If it has been earmarked for transportation then it has to be used for transportation. This is just more waste and more of the same that we can expect from President Obama and our local government.

Click here for the news article.