An update of current situation:-

In September 2021 EPA wrote to the WWRNAG group to inform us that they had undertaken a critical review of the work conducted by Sydney Trains to date in response to the Pollution Reduction Programs. The letter continued

"As per our standard practice, the EPA has written to Sydney Trains requesting them to show cause as to why the EPA should not take regulatory action in response to the alleged inadequate maintenance, and why the EPA should not require immediate short-term action to implement rail head maintenance to address rail corrugations and roughness by 31 December 2021. A response is required by late September. Following receipt of this information, the EPA will consider the information provided by Sydney Trains in conjunction with previous Pollution Reduction Programs and the Acoustic Studio review to determine next steps"

The EPA promises to update the results of this instruction to Sydney Trains on their community update page at EPA Community News.

In other news, we have recorded an interview with A Current Affair and hope to see it aired next week!

From our own noise measurements and calculations, it is clear that rail noise noise exceeds the EPA licence level by a factor of around 5 times.  That is, the trains going past are 5 times noisier over a day than they should be.

By way of explanation, the licence level for noise used to be an average of 60dB over the daytime hours of 7am to 10pm, and 55dB for the remainder of the day.  In the reissue of the licence in 2013, the limits were increased to 65dBand 60dB respectively - does not seem to be much but remember that this is an increase of more than THREE times the allowable noise.  For good measure, without consultation, the limits - which were always advisory anyway - were taken out of the licence completely.  We are quoting the 2013 limits here.

There are two main factors in the noise increase over the years.  Firstly, there are twice as many trains as there used to be before the opening of the Epping to Chatswood line in 2008.  Secondly, the new trains make more noise when they ride around the tight curves than the old trains made.  This is summarised in the table below.

The noise can also be influenced by operational changes such as speed limits and maintenance levels of both wheel and rail. It can be reduced by noise walls.

While we are pleased to see the introduction of a new rail service to the North West, it increased the 15 hour noise average to over 5 times the level recommended in the EPA License levels (before they removed the recommendations!).

So while we accept that if you buy a house near the train line, you should expect to hear trains, we don’t accept that the noise can increase by 5 times with no mitigation.

A decibel (dB) is a unit invented to measure noise.  It is a logarithmic unit that expresses the ratio of noise pressure to the noise pressure of the threshold of human hearing.  As it is a logarithmic unit, small increases in the numbers mean large increases in noise just like that other common logarithmic unit the Richter Scale for earthquakes.

An increase of 3dB is double the noise, an increase of 10dB is 10 times the noise.

For reference,

• a level of 30dB is often considered to be dead quiet.
• normal conversation is around 60dB
• A lawn mower produces around 80dB
• A rock concert or a thunderclap is around 115 db

Anything above 85dB is considered to be harmful to hearing.

The Equivalent Sound Level is an average of the noise measurements across a time period.  The LEQ₁₅ is the average noise level over 15 hours between 7am to 10pm. It is the basis of daytime noise regulation for many environmental noise situations.

The LEQ₁₅ is calculated using measured noise and a standard  process set down by the EPA.  The process is complex because the noise measurements are not linear— double the noise is not double the noise measurement.

The LEQ₁₅ descriptor correlates well with the health effects and social impacts of noise on people.

The EPA has set the LEQ₁₅ recommended level at 65bB.  This means that if all the noise of the trains was spread evenly throughout the day, it should be about as loud as a normal conversation.  Our measurements show that it is about 73dB which is more than six times as loud as the recommended level.

The World Health Organisation thinks differently.  It recommends that the average over the day be limited to 55dB.  The Sydney Trains in Wollstonecraft are 63 times louder than this and they will get louder.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has undertaken a detailed review of all the studies on the health impacts of transport noise.  In short, it found a 5 to 10% increase in Heart Attacks and High Blood Pressure.  They recommended that the night time noise be kept below 44dB ( Waverton - Wollstonecraft is around 68dB - over 250 times higher!), so the 10% impact on health is probably also higher.  

At a less severe level of consequence, the data from WHO suggest that more than 35% of the local population would experience annoyance and sleep disturbance at the current noise levels.  

That is the graph of the daily noise we suffer every day in this area. 

Here is one full day. It happens to be Monday 13 November 2017, but it is just like every other day. Each spike in the graph is a train.  The noise level is shown by the graph axis at the side. There is a small gap in the middle of the night, but really, 3 hours sleep is not enough.