Thursday, 30 October 2025

 Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (17:18): (1381) My adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Public and Active Transport. It is a bit of a hangover from my previous portfolio, but it has to do with the level crossing at Ramsden Street in Clifton Hill. I am raising this matter for the minister for public transport. Metro Trains recently upgraded the pitch and the volume of the electronic bells at that level crossing, which starts at 4:40 in the morning.

Mary-Anne Thomas interjected.

Matthew GUY: Yes, I am sure you have, Minister; I am sure you have. It starts at 4:40 in the morning, with up to 20 trains an hour, and concludes at 12:30 am at night. Ramsden Street is on the southern side of Clifton Hill station. It has got an old interlocked set of gates, which are there as a feature, and a signal box, but of course there is now an electronic set of boom barriers that are there and warning bells and flashing lights. As I said two months ago, in August Metro upgraded the level crossing and modernised the electronic lights and the bells, but in doing so they increased the volume and the pitch.

Some residents who have been there nearly 30 years just cannot stand this. It is, they say, like living with torture. It is much, much louder. Metro have turned off the eastern-side electronic bells, but they are still exceptionally loud. This is disrupting kids’ sleeping patterns. It is disrupting locals. It is obviously very, very annoying to have that made louder than what it was. Metro and the state government’s answer to date has been that they are abiding by Australian standards. But I submit this in my adjournment matter to the minister: in country New South Wales along Australian Rail Track Corporation lines – where the XPT trains run past at 160 kilometres an hour, or freight trains on interstate lines at 115 kilometres an hour – they turn off the electronic bells on the level crossings at night so as not to interfere with residents’ sleep patterns. I know that, for instance, in Baird Street in Culcairn they do this, and in a number of other areas. In the state of Queensland they have never – for vehicles, not necessarily for pedestrians – installed bells along with gates and flashing lights as part of their electronic boom barrier program since 1913. There is no epidemic of safety problems in Queensland. There is no safety problem in country New South Wales. So tonight I ask the minister to intervene in Metro Trains’ decision to not lower the pitch and volume and frequency of this level crossing in Ramsden Street, Clifton Hill. It is clearly disruptive. I ask the minister: please intervene, help these residents. It is clearly louder than what it should be, and it should be returned to what it was before.