MARIBYRNONG Council has hit out at the state government over its “soft” approach in dealing with excessive noise along the rail corridor.
Release of the government’s Draft Passenger Rail Infrastructure Noise Policy follows concerns expressed at the Regional Rail Link (RRL) project’s impact on Footscray residents due to the lack of a proper policy.
The draft includes “investigation” thresholds for passenger rail infrastructure that would kick in at 65 decibels average or 85 decibels maximum by day and 60 or 85 decibels by night.
A key criticism of the draft is that these thresholds aren’t automatically triggers for intervention.
A report to a meeting last week of the council’s city development committee argues for intervention levels where “positive action” is required to mitigate noise from the rail corridor.
“The draft policy refers to investigation thresholds . . . developed to identify when rail noise warrants further consideration. This is regarded as a soft approach that provides no certainty,” the council says. At a public meeting on September 20, residents raised a number of issues with the policy including a lack of proper targets, monitoring or planning for future growth.
The council’s submission on the draft to the Department of Transport seeks better measures for dealing with incremental noise increases caused by extra passenger and freight trains on the network.
The council also wants guidelines drawn up for land owners and developers to address noise impacts and mitigation measures.
Current noise levels along the Footscray corridor already exceed the flagged threshold and the council has sought the erection of noise walls along the entire Maribyrnong rail corridor as part of the RRL project.
The Regional Rail Link Authority has so far resisted the request but promised to take measures needed to conform to any new noise policy.
The council has so far spent $40,000 measuring noise levels along the rail corridor and wants developers to be made responsible for any future reports or advice needed to process planning applications affected by the policy. The final policy is due to be released by the end of the year.
