A New Jersey neighborhood says it is being overwhelmed by an unwelcome presence right outside its doors: rail cars loaded with garbage. According to News 12, residents in Manville have grown increasingly frustrated with trains full of trash being parked next to their homes, describing the cars as mobile landfills that they want gone for good rather than parked in their community.
The complaints center on the smell and the debris. According to the account, neighbors say trash can be seen having spilled out of the trains, and that the odor coming off the parked cars has at times been overwhelming. What might be tolerable from a single passing train becomes far worse, they say, when the loaded cars are left sitting in place near where people live.
The scale of the problem is part of what alarms residents. According to News 12, while two weeks ago the neighborhood got a whiff of the garbage from just one train, there are often three or more parked next to homes at a time. Residents say that when that happens, some people begin to feel nauseous or suffer headaches if they are outside near the cars.
For one resident, the timing of the latest stretch made it especially hard to bear. She said the smell was unbearable over the Fourth of July, when the family could not stay outdoors and ended up bringing their barbecue inside to eat in the dining room. She described it as embarrassing, explaining that she had wanted to show guests around the house but the trains and the trash got in the way.
The issue has now reached the level of local leadership. According to the account, the mayor of the town has reached out to members of Congress to see whether the situation can be rectified, an escalation that reflects how the parked rail cars have moved from a nuisance to a persistent grievance that residents feel they cannot resolve on their own.
The railroad, for its part, has said it is trying to address the concerns. According to News 12, CSX Transportation said it wants to be a good neighbor and acknowledged that some rail cars had stayed longer than they were intended to. The company said its team had taken additional measures this week to reduce how long cars remain at the yard, including using available capacity on passing trains to move them more quickly through the area.
While that response has offered some hope, residents say they are looking for more than a temporary fix. According to the account, neighbors want a permanent end to what they call mobile landfills being parked next to their homes, rather than assurances that the cars will simply be moved along a little faster when complaints pile up.