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Originally Posted by lrt's friend
Repeatedly, one of the arguments for rail transit is that it is quieter than buses. Now, I am not against rail transit but let's be honest.
When the O-Train went into service, there was immediate demands for noice barriers along the right of way in residential neighbourhoods.
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That was from the jointed rail - and it's a perfect example of the City not listening to the advice of rail advocates. The latter recommended putting in welded rail. Did the City listen? Of course not. After all, what do a bunch of amateurs know? So there was lots of noise and the City's "solution" was... noise barriers, at considerable expense. Did that work? Of course not. So the City had to go out and put down welded rail after all - at less cost than it cost them to put up the barriers, all with a time savings allowing more frequent service to boot. Interestingly, the infill development north of Walkley (on former rail right-of-way) was put in
after the welded rail was laid and there are no sound barriers for that development. Hmm. Turns out the rail advocates were right all along.
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I make fairly regular trips to the Home Depot on Bank Street and the O-Train runs immediately next to the parking lot and the garden centre. You cannot avoid noticing the noice produced by the O-Train as it passes. It is not the engine but the steel wheels on steel rails that produces the racket, which is much worse than a diesel bus.
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At the Home Depot, the O-Train is running over a switch and if it's coming from the north, it's coming out of a curve. You may well be hearing the sound of the brakes being applied to go through the switch.
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So, let's call a spade a spade. Steel wheels on steel rails is almost certainly going to produce noisier results than rubber tires on pavement. This is why it is more of a challenge to place rail transit through populated areas, especially if you want rail transit to run at more than the slowest speeds.
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I live near the Scott Street trench - I can guarantee that buses with their rubber tires on asphalt make a whole lot more noise than steel wheels on steel rail on a straight track. If you stand above the O-Train line at Carling or the Beech St pedestrian bridge or Gladstone, you're hard-pressed to hear it. Not so buses - you always hear them when they're travelling in a similar environment (e.g. the trench). But if it a train is going through switches or curves, then you do hear it, especially if the track isn't greased.
With buses, you always hear racket everywhere, but with trains it's localized. Train noise can be worse than bus noise at those specific spots, but the fact that it is localized means it can be addressed with specific measures as well - in contrast to buses where measures would have to be taken just about everywhere.