The recent press involving the air quality issues at Southern Cross Railway Station together with the news of a medical report linking a former worker’s liver damage to diesel fumes at Melbourne’s busiest railway station should not come as a surprise.
The reality of people working and using Southern Cross Railway Station now becoming ill from diesel and other fumes has in my view at least been coming for a long time. Reports over a period have provided evidence of the air quality issues at the station. Any poor quality air especially with diesel and gas emissions is always going to be less ideal and hazardous to us all.
I myself have vomited when accessing platforms 15/16 on a calm day without a breeze such is the thickness and amount of diesel fumes. I can’t image what interstate or overseas vistors think when they use the station.
The air quality at and around Southern Cross Railway Station is terrible with many complaining for years about the smells and choking fumes through much of the day. Nearby residents have been complaining about the fumes and air quality around and in their homes and businesses.
The problem is not so much the design of the railway station in many ways a covered station and platform design used around the globe especially across european cities, and a design with a roof which is probably appropriate for the Melbourne climate, rather Melbourne has such a high percentage of diesel trains even for short journeys to our western suburbs.
There are simply too many diesel trains using the station and many sit idling at the platforms waiting to depart. This is highly unusual for a european railway station where electrification covers much of the network the trains use. The problem at Southern Cross is very much the making of poor planning and the government unwilling to move the network into the 21st century.
Vline are obsessed with getting you to work in Melbourne and home again but come the weekend with cheap fares, they run 3 car sets rather than 6 cars purely to save diesel.
So with 122 x 3 = 366 diesel engines running whereas with our diesel hauled services we used less than a 100 locomotives. Progress nah – backward progress? in large steps. – David Langley
In Victoria continue to service metropolitan stations in Melbourne’s booming western suburbs with diesel trains rather than an electrified service that does not emit diesel particulates and other nasty stuff.
Further, we have endured a lack of electrification on a short route between Franskton and Stony Point, a line that should have been upgraded to electrification decades ago.
A trip to Geelong is not, by Victorian regional standards, a long distance service, although it is an interurban route, and compares roughly in distance with a train service to Pakenham East. Pakenham East is electrified. Geelong (non electrified) being an 80 kilometre ride as compared to Pakenham East being just over 60 kilometres. By comparison in Sydney a service between Central Railway Station and Newcastle (Broadmeadow Railway Station) is 162kms and this line has been electrified for decades. This Newcastle line in NSW is roughly the same distance between Melbourne and Bendigo (non electrified). NSW has been decarbonising its rail network as much as it can being a bigger state with longer regional train journeys.
Even worse, Melton in Melbourne’s west is a suburb approximately 40 kms from the CBD and is still relying on diesel trains. In fact there is no electrification of this busy suburban line west of Sunshine is quite extraordinary really. 100,000’s of train trips into and out of Melbourne from Melton, Bacchus Marsh, Geelong, Lara, Tarnet, and even Deer Park (just 17mks from the CBD), all run on diesel services. This is clearly by any measure unsustainable.
Why has this continued to be a problem for Melbourne commuters?
The government has refused to develop and deliver a decarbonisation strategy for V/Line services in the form of electrification powered by the Victoria’s renewable power investments. We all read about how important investment in renewable power is, coal and gas are bad and the ALP have all the energy answers. What is never spoken about and never addressed are the 100’s of diesel trains generating carbon emissions when major lines could be electrified and in doing so decarbonised and many of the trains are on lines that could easily benefit from electrification.
Geelong and Ballarat should be electrified immediately removing a significant number of diesel train movements from the station. Making matters worse the government is continuing to buy diesel trains which service the suburbs of Melbourne when the rest of the world would have removed diesel from the RRL years ago. No self respecting government who seeks to deliver a cleaner and greener future would have built the RRL without electrification to Geelong or at least post delivery of the RRL electrify the network. The current strategy remains to add more and more diesel trains well into the future.
Another important issue is the government is buying diesel multiple units that have an engine in each carriage and call that configuration progress. These are called the vlocity trains the government has been telling us all are arriving to make our life better although based on what is now a 25 year old design. They are simply not appropriate for Melbourne Suburban trains, Geelong and Ballarat services.
In fact this is a move away from a single diesel locomotive hauled services with coaches to a train now with 6 diesel engines is creating more carbon emissions and more toxic smoke at Southern Cross. The problem at Southern Cross is now dramatically worse because of these decisions.
The answer should have been an EMU version of the next generation of Vlocity style cars (using overhead power) for key regional and suburban routes and for some routes metro trains based service model.
What do we do now?
We need urgent electrification of Geelong, Ballarat and a plan for Bendigo. Don’t be fooled the government is well aware of this.
See the petition on air quality at Southern Cross Station to send your message to the Victorian Government we need to act and not make excuses or pass the buck.
I think I have some grasp of the aur quality issues in Southern Cross Station as their some custom service staff wear air quality monitoring devices on their uniforms when I pass them!
People has sounded their complaints about the smell, me I can’t smell but it sure set off my breathing allergies!
In caution I prefer to the area station toward the yard so it bit more ventilated as not completely covered there!
But the noise factor of those idling newer volcities is another issue!
Can be overwhelming at times, can’t hear yourself think!
I hate to imagine the amount the degree of hearing loss the staff and shop vendors are at risk of!
Loco haul not so bad as they don’t attach the locomotive until roughly half hour before departure!
And when they arrive they are quick to detach the locomotive and take it away out of the station unless a occasional rare occurrence they have kept the locomotive there longer then usual!
The volcities prattling away is really rough on people around them at times….