Two million Swedes are disturbed by traffic noise • “Complaining is like spitting into a headwind”
Close to two million Swedes are exposed to traffic noise, according to an estimate from the Public Health Agency. In the tram cities of Norrköping and Gothenburg, hundreds of residents have had enough of the loud screeching noise from the city’s public transport.
– Complaining is like spitting into a headwind, nothing happens, says Gothenburg resident Barbro Uhlén.
The screeching noise from the tram’s turning stop outside the apartments of Barbro Uhlén and her neighbors in central Gothenburg cuts through the silence. At its worst, the metallic sound lasts for upwards of half a minute and recurs every departure.
– When they haven’t done the service they need to do, I can experience it a hundred times in a day. In the evening when I go to sleep, I have to put in earplugs and take sleeping pills.
Like Barbro, the Public Health Agency estimates that 2 million Swedes are disturbed by traffic noise. Documentation from both Norrköping and Gothenburg also shows hundreds of complaints from people who live near tram traffic. But Gothenburg’s tramways say that they are doing what they can to reduce the noise.
– Yes, there is a lot of spontaneous squeaking, says Gothenburg’s tramway CEO Linda Rudenwall when she gets to listen to the recording from the tram.
Does it have to sound like this much?
– Well, I really regret it and we take these complaints seriously. We need to review the wheel profiles on the wagons and replace tracks where it is really critical and this is part of the maintenance plan we have drawn up.
Barbro Uhlén also agrees to some extent that in a big city you have to put up with a certain amount of noise.
– Well, hearing the tram is one thing. But such a squeak we have can only be attributed to mismanagement.