Troon rail racket’s making lives a misery

Aug 29 2008

RESIDENTS in a quiet housing estate are being forced to live beside “massive steel walls.”

The neighbours in Troon have come out fighting against train companies for making their lives a misery.

Huge freight trains are driving householders batty by leaving their engines running late at night.

And the row, which has erupted in recent weeks, is threatening to turn into a war.

Central Ayrshire MP Brian Donohoe has begun compiling a dossier of complaints against the freight operators – which include a stack of damning pictures.

And he says they must buck up their ideas by respecting their surroundings, as well as the tracks.

He insisted: “The freight operators can’t have it both ways. Either they should pay to maintain the track and operate a code of responsible behaviour, or they should stop using this stretch of line altogether.

“Once again they appear to be ignoring the very justified concerns of residents, who are facing regular disturbance, and who are being intimidated by these unwanted neighbours.

“There seems to be a very easy and obvious solution to this issue; namely stopping the trains in a place further up the track where they do not impose on local people, and I simply can’t understand why the operators have ignored all appeals to do this.”

Mr Donohoe was already on the case after residents in Barassie complained about late night noise from the freighters.

But now a new hotspot for contention is a stretch of track near Marr College, which residents believed was derelict but is now allegedly being used to ‘park’ the enormous trains just yards from houses.

Freight operator EWS have responded to the complaints but fellow operator, Freightliner, have yet to address their concerns.

Mr Donohoe added: “This is now the second case of freight train disturbance in Troon that I’ve been told about in a matter of a couple of weeks.

“I suspect there may be other related issues and I would like to hear about them.

“I am currently compiling a dossier of complaints against the freight operators, and intend to call a meeting between the operators and the residents with a view to sorting all of this out to people’s satisfaction.”