Yep, Amtrak is out along the Main Line for it's annual rape and pillage of the landscape. This is yet another great reason to attend the TRANSIT SUMMIT Congressman Gerlach's office is getting together in Lower Merion in October...October 2, is the date we're hearing, but we'll keep you faithful apprised....Imagine, having Septa and Amtrak in the same room and having to answer questions?

Posted on Tue, Aug 26, 2008
Rail neighbors are not all aboard with Amtrak's spraying
By Cheryl Allison

Twenty years ago, when Andris Petersen moved into his home on Merwyn Avenue in Merion Station, the strip of land between his back yard and the tracks that carry Amtrak trains and SEPTA's R5 line was, he said, "a jungle."Slowly and steadily, he cleared away dead tree limbs and tangled vines, and removed the old appliances and other trash that had been dumped there.

He laid stepping stones and created a maze of paths crisscrossing the top of the steep embankment. He planted shrubs and small evergreens, perennials and bright-colored zinnias, and, in sunnier spots, tall sunflowers. Later, he began adding whimsical sculptures and pieces of "found art" - a toy locomotive, an odd knot of wood that looked to him like a dinosaur's head - at twists and turns on the walkways.

At some point, neighbors joined in, until today this "secret garden" stretches the length of the block and beyond, all the way from the Rockland Avenue Bridge to the Bowman Avenue Bridge.

For neighborhood residents, it has been a shady place to walk or rest for a while on a tree trunk bench. For train passengers, it has been an unexpected splash of color and glimpse of intriguing beauty on their journey.

A few weeks ago, however, Petersen had to watch as flowers, shrubs and even small trees began to dry and turn brown. Within days, a significant portion of the work of two decades disappeared, and Petersen was left wondering how much will survive.

Down the line in Haverford, the gardens weren't as exotic or elaborate. But in several yards along Old Lancaster Road, plantings are also dead and dying.

The cause, according to residents in both locations: the spraying of a systemic herbicide by Amtrak, which owns the railroad right-of way.

In Haverford, according to homeowner Alix Jacobs, the clear-cutting of a number of trees that once provided some back yard privacy has exacerbated the impact.

"You look out the back now, and it is not nice," said the two-year Haverford resident. The view's so open, "You can look into the trains and read the passengers' newspapers."

She lost decades-old rosebushes that were climbing on her fence and a large part of a garden bed. The grass of her rear lawn is dying.