Be afraid! be very afraid!
There’s a reason they’re called ‘bomb trains’ and there’s a dismal safety record to prove it. Just one really bad explosion could wipe out blocks. Just one derailment of a noxious gas car could kill hundreds. The “worst case scenario” is not at all far-fetched, with plenty of disastrous examples as evidence. Baltimore has been very lucky with near-misses, and ‘good thing the derailed cars were empty’ episodes.
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1. The Railroad
2. The Musi-Café, a popular watering hole that was busy at the time of the explosions 3. The Library 4. The former site of a Dollarama store 5. A commercial building |
6. An old chapel that housed a restaurant-bar
7. A Bank of Montreal location 8. A stationery store 9. A gift shop called "I' Ambrequin" 10. A residential area near the Boulevard of Veterans |
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Why gut a hole through the middle of our city with a years’ long series of explosions, boring machines and debris – disrupting and destabilizing it to add more danger and pollution? There’s a reason that the B&P tunnel project has silenced the word ‘freight’ –refusing to say it, using weasel words, PR, and deflection – right up to the brink of denial.
The B&P Tunnel project is an enormous, destructive, dangerous use of $4.5 billion of federal tax money for corporate profits under the guise and on the tailcoats of public passenger train service. If you were asked, “Should Baltimore open a huge swath for massive diesel-fuming double-stacked freight trains carrying hazardous, explosive, toxic , gaseous or nuclear cargo to rumble right through the city?” would you say, “yes?” Most Baltimoreans won’t even know until it’s too late and their livable city is further industrialized to line Railroad pockets. Residents Against The Tunnels (RATT) is a group of Baltimore citizens with a single mission: to say, “No! Find a better way.” We want to raise awareness to block funding of the proposed B&P Tunnel Plan in its current form, and send them back to the drawing board. We must demand a solution that places a higher priority on the safety, health, stability and future of Baltimore citizens. Let us NOT be the railroad’s path of least resistance. |
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We are all for passenger trains! We understand the crucial need for freight trains. But we object to the current plan to combine them as an intentional ‘railroading’ over concerns for Environmental Justice, Human Safety, Air Quality, Structural Stability, Future Development, City Livability, and Residential Rights. It affects ALL of Baltimore by opening a huge swath for hazardous double-stack diesel-spewing freight trains right through the city, and it hits West Baltimore especially hard.
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