I think your points are well taken. I will say that sometimes with a little goodwill, things can be solved a lot faster using appropriate technology. For example, the Quebec Gatineau Railway would have saved themselves a lot of misery had they installed the Hotstart technology on their locomotives. They wouldn't even have had to move them because they don't idle at night in that case.
So there is a lot to be said on both sides of the issue, but for the freight railways in particular, they are big, they are noisy, they are part of the economy, and we're just issuing a word of caution on that.