Noise from Skyrail used to argue against new apartment block

A SECRET Skyrail acoustic report used in a state planning tribunal case shows noise from trains would be louder if they run on elevated tracks.

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A SECRET Skyrail acoustic report used in a state planning tribunal case says noise would be louder for apartment residents if trains ran on elevated tracks.

The report by Octave Acoustics was mentioned in a decision by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to reject a 16-storey apartment block in Carnegie.

But the Andrews Government’s Level Crossing Removal Authority insists final elevated rail designs along the Cranbourne-Pakenham lines, including modern barriers and tracks, will end up reducing train noise for residents.

An artist impression of the Carnegie Sky Rail.

A secret report shows noise levels from trains will increase once tracks are elevated. Picture: Lawrence Pinder

The order by VCAT to reject the proposed Egan Street apartment block says developers had not adequately addressed issues related to new planning rules and Skyrail.

Developers had tried to argue residents in the new apartments would not be adversely affected by train noise — but VCAT said: “acoustic evidence indicates the elevated rail structure will give rise to higher noise emissions as relevant to the proposed development compared to the at-grade railway”.

“We consider that the tension between providing dwellings with outlook to the street and creating an internal environment that addresses rail noise from the elevated structure has not been sufficiently resolved,” the order says.

Carnegie resident Markus Oswald objected to an apartment tower near the Skyrail site. Picture: Mark Stewart

Carnegie resident Markus Oswald, who objected to the proposal at VCAT, said he was amazed the tribunal was able to obtain noise data when he and other residents nearby had failed.

“People have had to make one of their biggest life decisions about whether to sell or stay, without data that one party has been able to obtain,” he said.

Opposition planning spokesman David Davis said the VCAT case had “let the cat out of the bag” and Skyrail was “a stinker that nobody voted for and is being forced on communities without proper consultation or even the release of frightening sound data”.

The Level Crossing Removal Authority commissioned a separate acoustic study that it has released on its website and project director Brett Summers said the “state of the art rail system” would lead to less noise.

“Not only will trains make less noise as they travel along the new, modern tracks, but there’ll be fewer horns and no more noisy boom gates,” he said.

Sacha Fenton, a spokeswoman for Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan, said nine level crossings being removed along the Cranbourne-Pakenham line — by elevating tracks over roads — would help run ease congestion and run more trains on Victoria’s busiest rail corridor.

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