Banging, crashing, beeping and rumbling are just some of the noises that some Ystrad Mynach locals say keep them awake until the early hours of the morning. That's because since August, Transport For Wales (TFW) has been electrifying the railway which their homes back onto as part of the South Wales Metro works.
The project - originally set to be complete in 2023 - will be an integrated public transport network. It will comprise heavy and light rail, trams and new buses, along with several new train stations – designed to make it easier for people to travel, with more capacity and faster, more frequent and greener services. TFW has invested £800m into the new trains, which will include improved features such as air conditioning and automated level-boarding.
Although many in the Caerphilly borough town support the future plans, lots are "disappointed" with how the works are being carried out. Residents of Railway Junction, Lewis Street and further afield in Tredomen Terrace have reported unbearable noise coming from the railway until as late as 4am some nights. Others claim their homes physically shake because of the clatter.
Read more: Unbearable noise and sleepless nights: Life next to the major South Wales Metro works
A TFW spokesman said the work is carried out late at night to keep workers safe while trains aren't running. However, locals believe there could be other solutions which could save them a night's sleep.
Asma Ermis lives on Railway Junction along with her husband Hakan and their three autistic children. She said they are possibly the "most affected" household in the town.
The 37-year-old said: "In the last four or five days the noise has become worse than before. For me I am possibly the most affected person in this street as I have three autistic daughters. These days, the girls sleep with ear defenders on."
Asma said she is somewhat used to the noise of trains going past, but that the sound of the Metro works is not something she can see her family adapting to. "Most of the nights the girls have woken up because of the noise. We hear the sound of big machines digging the floor and banging. They start between 11pm and stops sometimes as late as 4am. This is the most important part of the night when people are resting.
"When my children can't sleep because of the noise and they have to wake up early to go to school, it affects them a lot. It scares them and they've been having a lot of meltdowns. I don't mind that they have to do the works, it's just the time of the night that bothers me."
A second Railway Junction resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said she couldn't just hear the noise in her home, she could feel it too. She said: "I was scared when I first heard it because I didn't know what was going on. We could feel it more than anything, the house was literally shaking."
Residents on the street said they received a letter from TFW saying the work would start from August 1 and would last until October 31. Although they welcomed the notification, they claim no specific times or dates were given within that timeframe as to when the work would affect them.
"It sounds like a rollercoaster," the resident said. "When the machinery starts, my bed is vibrating. My daughter is autistic and in the bedroom [which backs on to the railway] so it's really affecting her. It's relentless and really loud. Last week I noticed it happened about four of those nights. You can hear the metal banging against each other and other machinery. You can hear something beeping...up until 3am."
Tara Llewellyn lives a few yards away on Lewis Street. The 45-year-old said she doesn't understand why rail replacement buses aren't used so the work could safely be done in the daytime. She said: "They could have put on replacement services and done the work within a timeframe in an afternoon or day time and condense the work into days."
She said she has noticed the noise continue until 4am some nights without stopping. To help her 10-year-old daughter sleep, the family use their own electricity to switch a fan on in a bid to drown out some of the noise.
"It affects me in the day because of the lack of sleep," she said. "I'm up at 5.30am for work, so I'm awake the majority of the night. It's continuous banging and loud beeping noses. While we did receive notification, there has been no governance on the level of noise.
"It's quite disappointing really from a professional company. They should have made people aware of the extent of the works and the noise levels. They should have been clearer and more concise about what kind of work was happening and the noise that actually comes from that."
Chris Morgan and his wife Gwenllian Roberts-Morgan live half-a-mile away on Tredomen Terrace. He did not receive a letter preparing him for the works as he lives more than 200 metres away from the railway. However, he said some nights it reached volumes louder than his TV.
He said: "I didn't know what it was at first. One of the nights it woke me up with a banging noise. Another night I was sitting in the living room watching a film late and even with the TV on I could still hear it banging. I wondered where it was coming from.
"It's like a bomb going off. It's louder than a display firework. It'll be banging for 10 minutes and then it might stop and carry on again. For two hours there's banging more than there isn't. There's a wind turbine up on the mountain and I thought maybe it was broken. We went outside to try and work out what it was and posted on Facebook asking if anyone knew - so that's how we found out they were electrifying the railway."
Chris, 44, and Gwenllian, 40, said the noise had been so loud that it had even woken up Gwenllian, who takes strong medication to help her sleep. He said he had spoken to people as far away as Nelson and Hengoed who claim they are also within earshot.
He said: "Transport For Wales are quick enough cancelling the trains in the day so I don't understand why they can't cancel the last two trains in the night because of the electrification. I understand that they try not to cancel trains because of complaints, but it would be more appropriate and people would be understanding if they put a rail replacement on. Plus it wouldn't be that busy in the week that late on the valley line."
A spokesperson for TFW said: “The work we’re carrying out to develop the South Wales Metro is the biggest rail infrastructure upgrade in decades, so that we can run faster, more frequent and greener services between Cardiff and the valleys. As part of our work to deliver the Metro we are currently carrying out infrastructure upgrades in Ystrad Mynach.
“The safest way for this to take place is when the railway is closed, so the majority of the work occurs at night and during weekends when no trains are running. Due to the nature of the work disruption is unavoidable, but we are fully committed to working responsibly in the communities we serve and we take the concerns raised by local residents very seriously.
“We raise any issues being reported with our construction delivery partners and we welcome further feedback from residents via the Transport for Wales website.”
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