Investigation launched for squeaking harbourside train tracks

AN  INVESTIGATION is being launched into squealing trains along a winding harbourside rail track.

AN  INVESTIGATION is being launched into squealing trains along a winding harbourside rail track.

The NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has ordered Sydney Trains to look into the problem, which affects the track corridor at Wollstonecraft and Waverton.

“The railway curves sharply in parts of Wollstonecraft and Waverton causing wheel squeal and flanging, and this appears to be the main cause of the community’s noise concerns,” EPA’s metropolitan director Greg Sheehy said.

Pictured is (left) Judy Fennell, Brian Brooker and Mimi Neave.

Sydney Trains has to provide a report to the EPA by the end of June 2016, but their spokesman said significant progress to reduce noise had been made.

“Steps we have taken ­including implementing a successful horn reduction initiative and applying special lubricants to the track to reduce wheel noise,” the spokesman said.

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Residents set up the Waverton Wollstonecraft Rail Noise Action Group lobbying for change. They have been working with Sydney Trains and the EPA and welcomed an investigation.

The North Shore Line was opened in 1890 as a single track between Hornsby and St Leonards. It was extended to Milsons Point in 1893.