Angry protests over train noise

Feb 18 2009 by Gregor White, Stirling Observer Wednesday

RAGING residents living near the Stirling-Alloa railway line have been told that little can be done to prevent freight trains thundering past their homes.

At a stormy public meeting on Monday rail officials were bombarded with complaints about freight trains which residents claim are damaging their homes and quality of life.

Home and business owners packed into Logie Kirk Hall in Causewayhead to vent their frustrations at officials from Transport Scotland and Network Rail as well as Stirling and Clackmannanshire Councils.

The meeting was called after months of complaints about noise and vibration caused by trains operated by Deutsche Ban (formerly EWS) transporting coal to Longannet power station via the new line.

While many of those attending said trains passing at all hours of the day and night were causing damage to their property and causing them to regularly lose sleep, officials suggested that in many ways their hands were tied.

Ron McAulay, director of Network Rail Scotland, told the audience it was “obviously an issue that is very, very serious for you all”.

However, he added: “The way the industry is regulated is such that companies can bid for train paths as and when they like and if there is capacity there to allow them to run we must grant them access. We are obliged to do so.”

Several times officials had to fight to be heard above shouting from the crowd in the packed-out hall.

The meeting was also attended by Labour MSP Richard Simpson, who raised concerns about an environmental report produced to support the new line in the Scottish Parliament.

He called the 2003 report “sorely misleading”, pointing out that it stated 13 times that there would be no trains running on the line between 11pm and 7am, while this is now regular practice.

He also poured scorn on its claims that “only four properties needed measures like acoustic glass to mitigate noise effects...and there might be 40 residents ‘slightly annoyed’ by the rail reopening”.

He added: “The environmental report also talks about only crowned – or closed – wagons being used for freight but I understand open wagons are also being used, which could lead to problems with coal dust as well.”

Audience members confirmed that open wagons were regularly being used and them MSP urged anyone who thought their property was being damaged by train movements to forward photographic evidence to him and Anne McGuire MP at their Stirling office.

Several people wanted to know why the report had only looked at the area along the newly reopened line from Stirling to Kincardine, as residents from Braehead in particular said they were also badly affected.

One woman said: “We have had the railway line running into Stirling coming past our properties for years but this situation with the freight trains is a whole new ball game and we are suffering just the same as people living along the new part of the line.

“I can’t believe we weren’t considered as part and parcel of the whole thing at the time”.

Clackmannanshire Council promoted the bill to reopen the line but its roads and transportation manager Mac West admitted: “Circumstances have changed”.

“At the early stages in 2003 we were advised that seven to eight trains during the day would be sufficient to service Longannet,” he said.

“At that time Longannet signal box, which controls that part of the line, only operated during the day and discussions with power companies and others in the industry gave no indication that that was likely to change.

“We made assumptions at the time which were made in all good faith and it is unfortunate that these have now changed”.

Network Rail said it would look again at the measures that had been taken to mitigate noise and vibration impact from traffic on the line.

Mr McAulay said that as far as his organisation was concerned measures already put in place were “in good condition and up to standard”.

But he also admitted that over the past months Network Rail had identified several clusters in the Stirling area where there seemed to be a lot of complaints.

“Given that fact, we are arranging for teams to come back to look at them in a much more detailed way than previously,” he said.