Most of the trains belong to the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, which schedules 28 runs a day between Boston and Providence, the neighborhood residents say.

The biggest problem seems to be trains that stop in the neighborhood, apparently to wait for their next scheduled run to Boston, said Ted Lewandowski, 38, of 28 Dickens St.

If the trains go a little bit farther south, maybe just half a mile, that would alleviate all of the problem, he said.

Just south of Lewandowski's neighborhood is an industrial section that could handle the idling trains, disturbing few sleeping residents, he said.

An MBTA spokesperson said that the authority wants to keep noise to a minimum, but engineers have been forced to move their trains to accommodate work by Amtrak crews on a major rail electrification project.

It's easier [for Amtrak] to do the work at night because there's less traffic; unfortunately, for some of the residents it makes noise, said Brian Pedro, an MBTA spokesman.

Amtrak's massive rail electrification project, known as the Northeast Corridor High Speed Rail Project, is nearly finished and should not be a major disturbance in the area, an Amtrak spokesman said.

Project engineers would examine their work to see if it could be done with less disturbance to nearby residents, said Russ Hall of the Amtrak Northeast regional office.

We are definitely going to look into it, Hall said. They are holding the trains out there by South Attleboro station, but they are only averaging about 20 minutes at a time out there, he said.

The South Attleboro MBTA station is just over the Attleboro- Pawtucket line.

The Amtrak work should be completed by next week and the noise should drop off, Hall said.

Amtrak has run high-speed regional trains since Jan. 31. An express train capable of speeds up to 150 mph is expected to debut next month.

Lewandowski, of the Darlington neighborhood, said he talked to MBTA officials about the noise issue last year. He said he was away over the winter and had expected the problem to be resolved by the time he returned to Pawtucket in the spring.

It's a just a mixed bag because sometimes you get the guys who blow the horn at 1 a.m. and sometimes you get guys who clank the bell all the way to the South Attleboro station, he said.

Publication date: 2000-07-19