"Look down at the trams gliding past", said the ad for an elevated property in Dandenong Road. On the quite new and well constructed track in Dandenong Road, they may very well glide past but where I live, they grind, squeal, thump and rattle past.
It is rumoured that some state politicians have moved from the street front of Parliament House to further inside to get away from the noise of the trams squealing as they turn from and into Bourke St.
It does not worry me much, as we have thick glass. There are some areas where the din must be intolerable, such as The Esplanade in St Kilda.
While the old trams make a different noise to the newer ones, I would not say that one is noisier than the other. But really, old motor cars were noisy, new ones are not. Why can't tram design move ahead in a similar manner?
This was written a while ago and saved for a rainy day. It rained today, so I publish it with the update below.I have not been on a country train for sometime. The last time was a few years ago when I caught a train to Murchison East and transferred to a V Line bus to go to wherever.
It was the most relaxing journey I have ever been undertaken. Both the train and coach were wonderfully comfortable. Both were smooth as silk and whisper quiet. It was almost a floating sensation. Why would anyone want to travel any other way?
But today I read in the
newspaper that our new and fast country trains are too noisy and have to be returned to the factory for some extra insulation. It is believed that they can create a noise level in the interior of the train of up to 80 decibels. Not being a sound engineer or audiologist, I don't know what that compares to, but I have a good idea of what 90 db sounds like. The sound is likened to that produced by an old Tait train, a red rattler. They were noisy, very noisy.
Just another backward step for public transport.