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Noise Headlines and Top Story- Updated July 25, 2008
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* FAA Funding Extended: AIP Noise Grants Awarded
* Supreme Court to Review Limits on Navy Sonar
* Health Effects of Noise Examined
* Sydney Airport First to Measure Noise Levels of Airbus A380
* Senate Measure Would Require FAA to Respond to GAO Redesign Report
* Sound Insulation Offers Chance for Environmental Improvements
* Retirees Rank Quietest and Noisiest National Parks
* FLL Runway Extension Proposal Advances
* FAA Requires EA for Bob Hope Part 161 Bid
* Analysis of Noise Forecast Report Generates Controversy
* Salt Lake County to Tighten Noise Control Ordinance
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Europe Aims to Reduce Freight Train
Noise By 50 Percent
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Before the end of this year, the European Commission (EC) plans to propose legislation that eventually will require most railroad freight cars to be retrofitted with low-noise brake systems. The move is designed to reduce the noise from rail freight by 50 percent and bring relief to 16 million residents ‘highly-affected” by noise by 2014.
The EC’s impact assessment estimates that retrofitting as many as 370,000 freight cars with quieter LL- or K-blocks could cost $1.5 billion or more. However, “the results of the cost-benefit calculation show considerable net benefits for all scenarios,” according to the EC.
“It also needs to be underlined that some major benefits of retrofitting could not be quantified and [valued], such as the savings due to reduced infrastructure-related noise abatement programs, reduced maintenance costs for the rail infrastructure, and efficiency gains in fleet management. These benefits have the potential to be of the same order of magnitude as the costs of retrofitting.”
The Commission will propose a combination of policy instruments to provide economic incentives that will drive the retrofit, including:
• noise-differentiated track access charges that will favor silent wagons over noisy ones;
• noise emission ceilings that set limits for the daily average emissions at certain locations along rail lines;
• voluntary commitments that can support retrofitting and the introduction of noise-differentiated track access charges.
“Rail is generally considered one of the most environmentally friendly transport modes, however, the contribution of rail transport to noise pollution is considerable, with about 10 percent of the population exposed to significant noise levels” according to the EC. “The European Community has already acted on this issue, however, given the long lifetime of rolling stock, it will take several years before overall noise emissions can be reduced significantly if no additional measures addressing the existing fleet are introduced.”
Retrofitting could target all European freight cars that run more than 10,000 kilo-meters per year and are expected to remain in service for at least five more years. “The aim…is to reduce the exposure of citizens to rail noise by promoting the establishment of rail noise abatement programs to curb noise emissions of freight trains without jeopardizing the competitiveness of rail freight.”
Copyright 2008 Great Circle Communications LLC. No unauthorized posting, forwarding, or any other form of transmission of this material, by any means, in whole or in part, is allowed.
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