Originally Posted by antimonysarah

That intersection is less than a mile from my house; it's funny to see it as part of a trip report. It can be a mess to turn left there with the angled tracks in the middle of it and no stop signs, but cars are generally gracious about letting people across. The flagger is required so that they can not sound the train horns through the crossing, and possibly for other safety reasons -- I see them having to chastise pedestrians who try to skirt the barriers when they're down on a regular basis. That's the Lowell line going past, and the Downeaster heads through as well, though without stopping.