Conway pledges 5 point plan to fix Waverton rail noise

By Grahame Lynch

Independent candidate for North Shore Helen Conway has promised action on excessive noise on the Waverton and Wollstonecraft train lines should she be elected to office on March 25.

The noise issue has become a major election issue, with the Waverton Wollstonecraft Rail Noise Action Group claiming that hundreds of residents are affected by the screeching of trains as they navigate tight curves on the tracks.

Conway told a residents meeting this month that she will take five steps to stop the noise should she be elected.

“The first is to reinstate the original noise limits imposed as part of the 1997 Sydney Trains Environment Protection Authority licence as a requirement in the current Sydney Trains EPA licence,” she said.

“The second would be to introduce a proven and cost effective Slovenian lubrication system and reduce the noise to below European requirements. The third thing would be to commission a fully engineered train noise reduction design and require Sydney trains to implement that design. Fourthly, it’s really important, I think, to establish an independent noise monitoring body that will be required to monitor the train noise and report that publicly and also report to an independent steering committee. And finally, I’d like to see the matter of train noise regulation referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment.”

Conway is a local Wollstonecraft resident and has been involved with the Action Group for some time, assisting it with strategy.

She said: “We had a Zoom meeting with the current MP many months ago and we explained very clearly what was needed to fix this problem. Promises were made to us about having a meeting with the EPA and with Sydney Trains. After that meeting, we followed up with a very detailed letter setting out what the outcomes were that we wanted and the precise actions we wanted the government to take. There was no confusion about what we wanted. It was all very clear. Apart from a very simple two line acknowledgment of that letter, nothing has happened. We were never contacted again. We never had another meeting. We were just treated with contempt. We were completely and utterly ignored.”

According to group co-convenor Brian McGlynn, a solution is ready to go. He said the Slovenian lubrication option from ELPA has been successfully deployed in 25 countries overseas. He told the Sun that ELPA has offered it for a free six month trial in Sydney, with lubricators to be deployed on each of the five problematic curves, but Sydney Trains had not taken up the offer.

He also told the Sun that no one in authority had ever “come out to measure the noise.” He said that the group had recorded decibel levels as high as 105dB at Wollstonecraft Station and 85-95dB at a house some twenty metres from the track, the levels of a “rock concert,” he said.

The problem was particularly acute in the “sleeping” hours of 10.30pm1am and 5-6am when trains were still active.

He said that while MP Felicity Wilson had taken an interest she had not achieved a positive outcome.

Wilson told the Sun that a fine imposed by the Environment Protection Authority on Sydney Trains had served to “refocus their efforts.”

“Sydney Trains is now undertaking a whole range of genuine actions to mitigate the noise problem,” she said.

“If it was an easy fix solution it would have been done decades ago. We’re taking it incredibly seriously.”

“They are now doing things like raising all the sleepers, adjusting the cant (range of elevation) of the track, they’ve got the lubricants in … they’re making a range of fixes but my commitment is that I will explore every potential solution to that noise problem.”

Wilson also said that state treasurer Matt Kean and her had met with a representative of the action group recently to discuss the potential use of the ELPA lubricant.

“We hope to finalise action on that within days. A lot of work is already happening but we need to do everything we can do,” Wilson said.

“It’s a genuinely difficult challenge,” she admitted, pointing to what were some of the most extreme curves in the Sydney rail system.

By Grahame Lynch

North Sydney Council deputy mayor Godfrey Santer has launched his campaign as the Labor candidate for the seat of North Shore, saying he is the only “true progressive choice” and comparing his party favourably with the Greens and independents when it comes to who should replace the Liberals.

Speaking at the Kirribilli Hotel, Santer said that when talking with local voters, “what’s been made clear to us is that voters want change and most think that there will be a Labor government after the 25th of March.”

“But are they in this electorate, a traditional Liberal seat, prepared to vote Labor? Our challenge has been to demonstrate to traditional Liberal supporters disillusioned with the performance of that party that we are a viable alternative to Liberals and we have the right policies, not just to demonstrate that viability, but to show that we could and would improve their lives. What are the concerns? What’s the government’s record? Well, we all know about cost of living, how it's going up and it’s rising rapidly.”

“Wages are stagnant. The price of housing and rents are going through the roof. There are no cause terminations of rental agreements, health and education workers can’t afford to live here where they work. And health and education are the two primary industries of this area.”

He lamented the lack of planning controls on residential developments has led to non-inclusion of infrastructure, inadequate public space and amenities such as schools and shops, exclusion of affordable housing and overshadowing of current residents properties.

“We’ve got privatisation, buses, ferries, maybe one day even the metro. We’ve all experienced the removal of bus routes, the non arriving buses and ferries and the long wait for the next bus thanks now to the departure of overworked and underpaid bus drivers who get $5 an hour more driving a garbage truck now they’re under these private contracts as bus drivers.”

Santer added: “After 12 years of government they’re tired and they’re panicking with last minute promises like the high line down near Wendy Whiteley Park, North Sydney Sydney Oval. In the last few weeks they’ve made promises they’ve had 12 years to deliver on and failed to do so.”

Commenting on his other rivals, he said of the independents: “Many if not most of their promises, for example on the environment, are taken straight from our party’s manifesto. Imitation is a sincere form of flattery, but there’s one thing they’ll never be able to or have to implement, and that’s the actual delivery of policy in government.”

Of the Greens, he said: “To all those who would question our environmental credentials, I would point out that we are the only political entity which in government has introduced an effective carbon pricing scheme, which also in its first incarnation was voted down by a party which claims to have protection of the environment and meaningful action against climate change as its reason for being.”

Santer said that Labor’s plan for the environment and climate change is “the only one which covers off all these issues.”

“And we’re the only party which can ensure they’re implemented in government rather than shouting from afar on the cross bench,” he said.