On 16 November 2023, four representatives of WWRNAG met with Sydney Trains and EPA for an update on the progress of Noise Reduction works in our area.  The update was not very promising.

Here is the presentation made by Sydney Trains 

It sets out the works already completed and the proposed future work.  There is currently no proposal to test the ELPA lubrication works.

Here are the minutes of the meeting provided by Sydney Trains.

We are preparing a response to these minutes.

The meeting was not a happy meeting. The EPA seemed completely out of the loop, Grant Burton who is the Executive Director Asset Management for Sydney Trains indicated that there is no current plans to test the ELPA lubrication system, as it was not recommended by the consultant who reviewed the noise issues. He refused to allow access to the consultant's report doubting our ability to understand it (there were at least two Civil Engineers with around 100 years of experience in the room who may disagree).  He flatly refused to undertake any noise monitoring, saying it was not necessary.

In the past, Sydney Trains have been cooperative and helpful. That attitude appears to have disappeared.

We did make it clear that while some of the works had resulted in short term reductions in noise, these improvements quickly disappeared. The noise today is as bad as it was in 2019, in spite of anything they have done.

We fear that they will respond to the EPA saying that they have done everything they can and it is impossible to fix.