Noise row residents pledge to fight rail yard plan

Transport Correspondent

Monday 10 October 2011

HUNDREDS of residents have launched a campaign against a railway operator who has decided to site a train depot and overnight cleaning facility next to their homes.

RAIL ROW: Norman McIntosh, Councillor Ian Brown and his wife, Ethne, look at the site for the planned cleaning depot. Picture: Gordon Terris

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DAMIEN HENDERSON Transport Correspondent EXCLUSIVE

The site, at Broomridge, south of Stirling, was chosen by Network Rail from six potential locations to house electric trains being introduced by 2016 as part of the £1 billion Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP).

But residents of the neighbouring Wallace Park estate -- who were informed of the plans in writing AT the weekend -- have claimed light and noise pollution from the facility, which is expected to operate between 11pm and 6am, will give them sleepless nights.

Although the depot is planned for the site of a former rail freight yard, the estate was built several years after it ceased operations in 1986.Ethne Brown, secretary of Broomridge Community Council, bought her three-bedroom bungalow on the Wallace Park estate 20 years ago, not knowing that the railway sidings that border the land might be brought back into use.The residents -- who have had to contend with regular freight trains operating at night since the opening of the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine line in 2008 to enable deliveries of coal to Longannet power station in Fife -- fear the depot will cause further disturbance.Mrs Brown said: “When we moved in there was the occasional train from Aberdeen to London and a few in between. It wasn’t a big deal, otherwise no-one would have moved in here. Now we have to cope with the noise and vibration of trains going to Longannet through the night,” the retired university teaching fellow said.“We went to visit the Bathgate depot, where they don’t have as many houses nearby. Although it was not as noisy as we expected, there is a lot of light pollution. They’re big lights and they’re on through the night. The whole place is going to change.“The electric trains are quieter than the diesel ones and they’re trundling quite slowly but there are still the squeaks and rumbles we’d have to put up with.”Network Rail is currently consulting on the EGIP programme, which will see the main Edinburgh-Glasgow route electrified together with the line to Stirling and Dunblane.It identified the Polmaise yard at Broomridge along with five alternatives -- Bannockburn, Broadleys, Manor Powis, Plean and Stirling station -- as the favoured sites. It has now decided on Polmaise after a scoring exercise.However, residents in Broomridge accused the Network Rail of failing to properly consider alternatives.Ian Brown, councillor for Stirling East, said that the alternative sites would have led to less disturbance for residents.He added: “If this goes ahead, people nearest to the depot will be affected by light pollution. The floodlighting they use is pretty horrendous; it’s like a football ground style of lighting.“Broomridge is a cheaper option for Network Rail, as it owns most of the ground already, but it hasn’t taken account of the effect on residents. Broadleys would have been preferable as there are no houses next to the line.”However, Network Rail denied the claims, insisting that significant obstacles existed at other locations, some of which were on green belt land and would require major land purchases.A spokesman said: “We understand residents’ concerns and plan to include them fully as we progress the project, taking their views into consideration as we design the facility and carry out its construction.“EGIP will bring huge benefits for communities across the central belt, but it cannot be delivered without new infrastructure being put in place.”

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Noise row residents pledge to fight rail yard plan

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