Residents say underground rumbling from trains has got ‘exponentially worse’

A CITY Hall politician has accused Transport for London (TfL) of “gaslighting” residents in Islington over the persistent and unsolved problem of screeching tube noise in their homes.

Sem Moema, the London Assembly Member who represents Islington, told the Tribune that she has been fighting on behalf of affected residents for years, to no avail.

Ms Moema is calling for the transport body to allocate a portion of its budget and develop a strategy for “noise mitigation” to solve the problem which is getting “exponentially worse”.

The Tribune has been reporting on disruptive tube noises for over seven years. A 2019 investigation revealed that tube sound reaching over 120 decibels – the volume of a rock concert – were punching through floorboards and disrupting the lives of people across Islington.

Speaking to the Tribune, Ms Moema said: “Residents are always telling me that they can’t sleep, the noise is constantly driving them to distraction. But what TfL are doing is just denying it and effectively gaslighting them.

“We are told by TfL that something in the region of £50million could completely fix this issue, which is ruining people’s lives and keeps consistently slipping through the cracks.

“Whilst that is a lot of money, it is not a lot of money compared to TfL’s overall budget. They have not made this issue a priority, whilst people are effectively being noise-tortured in their home.”

Neil Smith and Bruce Carr

Ms Moema, along with cross-party colleagues, have been pushing both TfL and the London mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, to ensure a procedure called “rail grinding” is regularly carried out.

When done frequently, rail grinding can signifi­cantly reduce the negative effects of tube noise.

Neighbours were told in 2022 that a “blanket grinding” programme would be carried out until deeper infrastructural works could be commenced. But in July of this year, they were angered to discover that TfL had not carried out any of the promised works, and had no future plan to do so.

Neil Smith, a retiree who lives in Barnsbury, said that like “thousands” of other affected residents across the city, his sleep and wellbeing had been significantly disrupted over the past 10 years by the underground rumblings.

“Every morning I’m woken up at 5.30am by the screeching of trains, which now run every 30 seconds,” he said.

“This is a problem because the noise levels are getting higher and higher and higher every year, sleep is disrupted – we can’t enjoy our own homes. But each time the issue is raised, we are confronted with delay, denial and obfuscation by TfL. We want honesty and action from them.”

Mr Smith said he has become the de facto spokesperson for a group of more than 100 local residents who are affected by the issue in the nearby area, and has spent years enlisting the political support of Islington South and Finsbury MP Dame Emily Thornberry, Councillor Rowena Champion and Ms Moema. Some nearby residents, he said, have been forced to consider leaving their homes as a result of the continued disruption.

Sem Moema

He has been campaigning for 10 tears but said that TfL’s approach has been to “double down” on its lack of action, despite regularly sending workers round to measure the noise levels and promising action.

A change to the Victoria line schedule in 2016 increased the frequency of trains to 72 per hour, meaning that residents enjoy less than a minute of silence before the next train goes past.

Bruce Carr, a barrister who often works from his home in Waterloo Terrace near Upper Street, said the problem has been getting “exponentially worse”.

“The noise levels just continue to creep up and up, because if you don’t fix the corrugations, then they get worse over time,” he said.

“To me, this is negligence rom TfL. We haven’t had any grinding here in years, and when the tracks were replaced in 2018 they were done so with the cheapest replacement that they could, which just exacerbated the problem.

“There are certain parts of my house that I cannot work from because of the noise. There are over 70 trains an hour which means we go barely a few seconds without the noise again. It is driving me and my wife mad.”

At a recent Mayor’s Question Time, Sir Sadiq said he had allocated £9million of TfL’s budget to rail grinding, which Mr Smith said was a “joke”, as it would barely scratch the surface when divided across all 11 tube lines.

A TfL spokesperson said: “We have met with residents in Islington on several occasions to update them on the work we are doing and the challenges we are facing. We continue to invest in the maintenance and renewal of our track across the network to ensure that it complies with engineering and safety standards. With the resources available to us, we have initiated a number of specific actions at this location to reduce the noise and vibration generated while also slowing the rate at which the track wears, a significant contributor to track-generated noise.

“We undertake rail grinding across all the Underground network as part of a programme of planned maintenance that reduces rail surface roughness, a major contributor to track noise. We intend to undertake some further targeted interventions, including rail grinding, to reduce noise in this area in the autumn.”