THE contentious rail stabling yard at Woombye have become operational but without the nine extra train services that were promised to the community.

The yard had met with strong opposition from residents when it was announced in 2015 but despite their concerns about noise and light issues, it was still built.

Until now, the yard has been used for the testing
and commissioning of New Generation Rollingstock – Indian-made electric trains – but as of Monday, has been housing up to four NGR trains as they are deployed on the Sunshine Coast network.

The trains will pull into the stabling yard for cleaning and maintenance at night and residents are concerned about noise and light issues.

Mike Melzer, who has lived adjacent to the train line for 30 years, said he felt a “level of apprehension” about the yard becoming fully operational.

“We’ve lived here for over 30 years. We bought a property next to the railway line. We knew what we were buying into but we didn’t expect that they’d built a facility like that,” he said.

Mr Melzer said it was “wait and see” what the noise and light would be like during the night.

James Kasmer said he was aware of the glow from lights at the yard in his house at night, even though they had only been running at only 40% capacity until this week.

He said there were also noise issues when train air- conditioning had mistakenly been left on all night although Queensland Rail had rectified the problem.

A Queensland Rail spokesperson said three trains would arrive at the yard morning and night, the latest at 8pm, four cleaning and maintenance staff would work there between 10pm and 5am, and three driver- and-guard train crews would come and go to operate the trains.

The spokesperson said trains would sound a klaxon – horn – for one second once upon entering and leaving as a safety measure.

The spokesperson said light would be on at 100% while there was activity in an area of the yards but would then dim, and that QR had done what it could to minimise the impact of the yards on residents.

As for the nine extra rail services which were promised, the spokesperson said two extra off—peak services had been running since 2016 and an extra morning peak service between Nambour and Elimbah would begin on March 2.

The spokesperson said priorities were now on restoring service levels following “significant change” and commissioning the NGR fleet.