Residents in Melbourne’s northeast have complained that earplugs and noise-cancelling headphones are the state government’s answer to trains keeping them up at night.
On Friday, Transport Infrastructure Minister Danny Pearson opened the new Keon Park Station in Thomastown, which is a 750m rail bridge over the road.
The bridge is just metres from apartment balconies where residents say they are now woken by blaring announcements and bright fluorescent lights.
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One resident told 7NEWS he was woken at 7.30am on Friday by the station master’s announcement Keon Park is now open for passengers.
Residents in two apartment blocks have said they are in favour of the project but want their windows double-glazed and a shade put across their balconies.
They say this offer has been denied by the Level Crossing Removal project.
“All we’ve asked them is to install double-glazed or triple-glazed windows for us to combat the noise and to cover our balconies with a shade to protect our privacy,” one resident said.
“When they started building, we complained about the noise. They gave us earplugs. It’s laughable.”
Fellow resident Angela Villella told 7NEWS bright lights from the station blast through her bedroom window at night and also questioned why the station needed to be so big.
“We think it’s great the rail crossing has been removed but we have gone from a single car garage-looking train station to something that looks like the Taj Mahal. It’s massive,” she said.
“My bedroom at night, the light comes through and it’s very bright.
“Bright lights 24/7 is a torture tactic in Guantanamo Bay and we’ve got it here in Keon Park, can you believe it?”
When asked about the proximity of the station from the balconies on Friday, Pearson said residents who purchased an affected apartment before 2022 are eligible for the Voluntary Purchase Scheme.
For those who purchased after 2022, “it’s a case of working with the impacted residents to understand what we can do to assist them”.
Level Crossing Removals acting CEO Matt Thorpe said while it was known there would be concerns from some residents, there was no way to change the location of the station and the proximity to the apartments.
“During construction we offered a range of options for people,” he said.
“Sometimes we offer relocation but certainly it’s common through the construction phase to offer things like headphones to account for noise.”