New Petitions
Rail Noise and Vibration (Larbert) (PE1302)
We move on—or, should I say, back—to consideration of new petitions. PE1302, by Colin Sloper, calls on the Parliament to urge the Government to ensure that greater consideration is given to the problem of noise and vibration generated by increasing levels of heavy freight on the rail network and to consider what action can be taken to encourage freight operators to use more track-friendly rolling stock.
Dr Richard Simpson and Michael Matheson have expressed an interest in this petition—indeed, Michael Matheson has sent us a letter that I presume all members have received—but the change in our agenda has meant that Dr Simpson cannot be here for our discussion. He got as far as the table and then had to retreat when we started to discuss the other petition. No doubt he will have a word with me after the meeting.
I should perhaps declare a personal interest in the petition—I live less than 100yd away from a railway line that is frequently used by Freightliner and DB Schenker.
I understand the frustration that has been expressed. Michael Matheson secured a members' business debate on the issue last year, and other members have shown an interest in the subject. Freight traffic causes a lot of disruption. The heavy freight traffic that goes along the railway lines where I live, particularly the coal wagons going from Hunterston to the power station, causes a lot of problems for people who live close by the lines.
Many people who live along the Alloa line were perfectly happy for freight to be moved down that line, but they had expected it to be moved only during the daytime, not in the evening. Where I live, freight is moved at all hours. I might occasionally be woken at 5 o'clock in the morning by heavy freight moving through the level crossing near where I live. Indeed, it now seems to be going through almost hourly, night and day. In his members' business motion, Michael Matheson raised the concerns of residents who live close to the line that runs through Larbert about the vibration, noise and disturbance that are caused by freight.
I would like the petition to continue. We should write to a number of organisations to find out exactly why that freight movement has been allowed to happen. Why are we moving such freight west to east across the country to its ultimate destination? It has an impact on the rest of the rail network, causing bottlenecks on the passenger rail network. I suggest that we write to the Scottish Government to ask about its powers and about how it monitors and regulates freight transport. I am aware that the Scottish Government, like other organisations, has welcomed the use of the rail network for freight, but we need to seek its views given the disturbance, nuisance and, potentially, destruction that is caused by freight being moved across the country.
We should write to a number of local authorities, Clackmannanshire Council in particular. We could also write to Falkirk Council, North Lanarkshire Council and one or two of the Ayrshire authorities to find out about the impact on their areas. The situation affects not just Alloa but residents in several local authority areas who live along the railway line.
If the committee is happy with that proposal, I will leave it there.
I think that the committee is supportive of keeping the petition open—I presume so from the nods that I have seen.
There are a series of questions that we will pursue with the Government and the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change about commitments on research and working with the petitioners to address some of the concerns that have been raised. John Wilson is right to mention local council authorities other than Clackmannanshire Council. The journey freight trains take crosses various local authority areas.
Perhaps we could link the petition to PE1273, which is specifically about the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine line.
I agree with John Wilson about writing to the Scottish Government and a variety of councils including Clackmannanshire Council. I suggest that, when we write to the Scottish Government, we ask it, as the principal funder of the SAK railway and as the body that appointed Clackmannanshire Council as the promoter of the bill, to confirm that every noise reduction and minimisation commitment that was made to the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine Railway and Linked Improvements Bill Committee in written and oral evidence, whether under oath or not, has been fulfilled. I guess that the answer will be no, but I would really like that question asked.
We should write to Network Rail about the issues in and around the petition and PE1273, and to DB Schenker and Freightliner to ask what noise minimisation features exist, if any, on trains that are used on that stretch.
My comments and suggestion arise from Michael Matheson's point, which he makes in his letter, about the technical issue of different types of bogie. It is striking that some of the bogies that are being used are twice as noisy as others. Quite apart from anything else, it appears that they are forbidden in parts of Europe because of the damage they do to tracks and the amount of noise they make, so I do not know why they should be inflicted on us in Scotland. Perhaps DB Schenker got hold of a job lot of them cheaply.
We should ask our Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change to contact the UK transport minister, because Michael Matheson suggests that it is the UK minister's responsibility to change the regulations back to what they were; it was the change to the regulations in 1996 that allowed the less track-friendly types of bogie on to our railways. That should be reconsidered.
We should perhaps make a plea to DB Schenker. If it has a split fleet and some trains use the less noisy bogies, the company should be asked politely whether it will consider putting them on the route because of the huge amount of distress that its trains are causing. Other issues have been brought up that need to be addressed, but that might get at least a palliative result.
Richard Simpson asked me to convey his apologies as he had to go to another meeting. He also asked me to make a couple of points, which I am happy to do. Like other members, he believes that the problem is that the rolling stock, certainly the DB Schenker rolling stock, is old and noisy. Night running did not happen in Scotland before 2002 or 2003—it is relatively recent. A response that Richard Simpson received from the Government states that the resurvey of households that was requested will begin in February—apparently, the Government agreed to that yesterday.
There is a range of questions that we need to ask the Scottish Government, Network Rail, DB Schenker and appropriate local authorities. Like Richard Simpson, Michael Matheson has identified a series of questions, particularly about the nature of the rolling stock, the impact it has on noise levels, whether a lower specification has been used and whether there are better alternatives that could be used. We will pull those questions together. There are a lot of detailed questions and there are a lot of questions to which we have still not had full answers despite our previous discussion on the matter. We will reheat those and resubmit them to try to get greater clarity.
Are there any final comments?
We might want to ask Network Rail what the impact is on the rail infrastructure in Scotland. As Michael Matheson states, the wagons weigh more than 100 tonnes. As 23 freight carriages are hauled at a time, does that have an impact on the infrastructure of the rail network? Does it have an impact on passenger trains' use of the rail network?
We will keep the petition open because we still want to address a number of areas and raise specific questions with various individuals and organisations.