Mitcham Council's fresh call to have freight trains diverted away from the hills
PLANS to have freight trains diverted from the hills must be put back on the table, Mitcham Council says.
PLANS to have freight trains diverted from the hills must be put back on the table, Mitcham Council says.
In its submission to the State Government's 30-year transport plan, Mitcham Council said diverting freight trains from the hills was imperative.
As part of the government's transport vision, released in October, the Belair rail freight line would be retained and expanded.
"(It) is opposite to council's current position that this line should be diverted and not run through Mitcham," the council's submission said.
Residents, who have long called for freight trains to be diverted, have backed Mitcham's stance.
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Christine and John Mudge's Eden Hills house is one block from the railway track.
"We've been living in this house for 33 years and over those years the noise has increased so much that when we are in the backyard we have to put our hands over our ears," Mrs Mudge said.
"We used to notice a rattle and you just heard the motors, but now we get about 20 go past a day and the screeching of the brakes is just awful so I have to wear earplugs at night to sleep."
Blackwood/Belair and District Community Association president Karen Hockley said her group supported any proposal for freight trains to be diverted.
"Increasingly, long and heavy freight trains travelling through the hills are noisy and dangerous and cause long traffic delays due to the waiting times at level crossings," Mrs Hockley said.
"One freight train can stop traffic simultaneously at Main Rd, Glenalta, and Main Rd, Blackwood.
"This creates concern that people may become trapped in the area when trying to leave in the event of a bushfire."
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Mitcham councillor Mark Ward, who has long been part of a committee lobbying to have the trains diverted, said the problem was not confined to the hills.
"A diversion is absolutely necessary and it's not a question of if it will be done, but when," Cr Ward said.
"It's fundamental and there's no doubt it should be a priority in the 30-year plan so why isn't it in there?"
More than 70 per cent of hills residents surveyed as part of a study released earlier this year supported a freight bypass.
A $3 million study, commissioned by the Federal Government in 2010, found a proposed $2 billion freight rail diversion from Murray Bridge through Truro to Two Wells and Mallala was not cost-effective.
But an analysis of that study by economic firm SGS, commissioned by Mitcham, Unley and Murray Bridge councils, found it "did not take into account the wider economic benefits".