During his time working at Melbourne’s Southern Cross Station, David Holmes remembers often seeing a curtain of dense smog stretching along the train platforms.
“You couldn’t see across the place … it was just this hazy mess of diesel, and it wouldn’t go away,” he said.
According to the elevator mechanic, it was a quirk of fate he was even working at the city’s major train and bus hub.
The now 36-year-old took his dream job with KONE Elevators, servicing lifts and escalators across Melbourne, when he was in his early 20s.
He said after about six months, the company transferred him temporarily to Southern Cross to maintain the station’s escalators and lifts, after someone left the job.
It was a fill-in role that ended up lasting for three years, with Mr Holmes based at the station full-time until 2015.
For much of it, he said he was covered in diesel fumes and brake dust from the V/Line and interstate trains.
“I would come [home] and I’d wash and scrub … and no joke, it would just ooze back out of my skin again,” Mr Holmes said.
“It’s just embedded in you. It’s embedded in your car, it’s in your skin, it’s in your clothes … And then eventually you just stink like it all the time.”
Once a keen long-distance runner and bike rider, after a couple of years in the job Mr Holmes noticed he was struggling to exercise.
He said he was getting cramps in his hands, felt constantly tired and realised his skin was turning yellow.
It was an unsettling observation for Mr Holmes, who said he had never been a drinker or smoker.
In 2015, medical records show his GP ran some tests and found his liver had stopped functioning properly.
Mr Holmes left his job, and while his health improved, he said he still had ongoing fatigue and aches.
A medical examination, carried out by a respiratory specialist last month, asserts his liver damage was caused by the diesel fumes he was exposed to at Southern Cross Station.
The report, seen by the ABC, stated Mr Holmes’s symptoms of fatigue and shortness of breath were also related to diesel exposure.
Mr Holmes has now lodged a workers compensation claim, through Carbone Lawyers, against KONE Elevators Pty Ltd and Southern Cross Station Pty Ltd — the private owner of the station.
He said he was angry more wasn’t done to keep him safe.
“I got a lot of pride out of making that place run,” he said. “The least [they] could do is make it bloody alright for us to be in.”
Some of the ‘least clean air’ in the city
Mr Holmes’ claim comes after the ABC earlier this year published previously hidden air pollution data from Southern Cross, that experts said showed people’s health had been put at risk and the station contained some of the “least clean air” in Melbourne.
Ongoing and short-term exposure to some of the pollution levels detected at the station could cause a variety of health issues like asthma, liver toxicity, and even heart attacks, the experts said.
The levels of nitrogen dioxide, a by-product of diesel, are within limits imposed by the regulator, Safe Work Australia — which means the station’s operators are following legislative requirements.
Residents in the vicinity of the Railway Station have been complaining about the air quality around the multi dwelling units and high rise appartments in the area.
But that limit is deemed outdated by doctors the ABC spoke to.
The latest air pollution data the ABC had access to was from 2022 and showed air quality at the station had improved.
This month, the station operator said it had maintained that air quality since, but the Department of Transport would not release the data to the ABC when asked.
IFM Investors, the parent company of the subsidiary that runs Southern Cross, said it was unable to comment on Mr Holmes’s individual case, but that it worked to maintain high standards of safety.
“The safety and wellbeing of employees and members of the public … is of the highest importance,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“While some emissions are unavoidable in a complex transport interchange like Southern Cross Station, we have and will continue to work closely with the station’s operator to ensure they meet all regulatory and safety requirements.”
Improved ventilation ‘being investigated’ at Southern Cross Station
Despite years passing since Mr Holmes worked at Southern Cross, he said his life was still impacted by his time there.
Last month’s medical report said his ongoing fatigue had limited him to sedentary work and noted exposure to diesel fumes likely increased the risk of some cancers in the future.
“I want to play with my daughters and I can’t … they don’t understand why I can’t play with them,” Mr Holmes said.
He believes much more could have been done to protect him from fumes, such as improving ventilation at the station.
Air pollution experts have previously told the ABC they agree, and that extractor fans at the station would help.
A pledge by the station owners to install extractor fans in 2011 to deal with fumes, after public pressure, never eventuated.
Adding to the issues at the station are the increased number of diesel engines being introduced into regional passenger services with the withdrawal of single locomotive hauled passenger rolling stock with the multiple unit Vlocity trains which can have 6 diesel engines running with 9 car sets about to be introduced adding the diesel pollution.
Put simply there are more diesel engines at Southern Cross than ever before and this is just not sustainable. We simply need a government who is prepared to start delivering on decarbonisation of the V/line short haul network being Geelong, Ballarat, and Bendigo. –Editor addition
Mr Holmes started at Southern Cross in 2012.
The owners of Southern Cross have long maintained the station’s roof is designed to naturally extract fumes and extra ventilation is not needed.
But in its latest statement to the ABC, IFM Investors said its subsidiary was looking at ventilation improvements at the station.
“Additional ventilation to improve airflow within the station is currently being investigated as part of our aim of continually improving the station environment,” it said.
Carbone Lawyers head of personal injury law John Karantzis said the firm was considering civil action against the station’s owners for not doing more to protect Mr Holmes, in addition to the workers compensation claim.
“He was required to work in this atmosphere, which is dangerous, and unfortunately, he’s now suffered ongoing and permanent physical and psychological damage,” Mr Karantzis said.
A spokesperson for KONE Elevators said it was sorry to hear about Mr Holmes’s health issues and it had initiated an investigation.
“We take all safety and employee wellbeing-related matters seriously, and they are a top priority for us,” they said.
A spokesperson for Victorian Transport Minister Danny Pearson said they could not comment on the case, but the safety of passengers and workers across the network was the government’s absolute priority.
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