7.2 State 7.2.1 Transport Noise Transportation, particularly road traffic, is one of the major noise sources. Population growth has led to ever increasing numbers of vehicles on the City's road network which has expanded to service new growth areas and to facilitate the transportation of people, goods and services. Increased use of the M4 motorway and arterial roads has resulted in corridors of noise impacted land. The City's State arterial road system is 126 km in length and includes those roads listed in Table 21. Residents living along these routes are exposed to higher levels of transport noise.
Heavy vehicles are a major contributor to elevated noise levels.
The main western railway line has noise impacts on residents living along its route. Currently there are approximately 70 inter-urban and 200 suburban passenger train movements along the western rail line each day. There are also around 82 freight train movements per day. The majority of these are from the western coalfields, travelling to Port Kembla. Above average noise emissions are experienced in some residential areas adjacent to the rail line as a result of these movements.