ACLAND COAL MINE TRAIN DRIVERS NEED TO 🚫 HONKING THEIR HORNS AT NIGHT THROUGH TOWNS

I have taken this issue up with the member for Lockyer, JIM MCDONALD, previously on Facebook with some random but no less well thought out and no nonsense opinions which I tagged MCDONALD in. 

Regarding the Aurizon freight coal trains, which go back and forth between the ACLAND COAL MINE on the Darling Downs and the Port of Brisbane, a long, long way away from Acland. 

Obviously the town of Laidley, where I live, is only one of numerous towns impacted very negatively by the train drivers, who I believe are employed by NEW HOPE COAL,  honking their horns between say 10pm and 5am. 

I am going to assume that residents, for example, in Gatton, Rosewood and any one of many suburbs along the metropolitan route through greater Brisbane in close proximity to a railway crossing where the trains are passing through in the dead of the night are putting up with the same unnecessary and "sleep impacting" noise pollution.

In my Facebook posts directed to JIM MCDONALD, I basically told Jim to get on the phone to New Hope Coal and tell them that having their train drivers honking their horns through towns during critical sleeping hours is simply NOT acceptable. 

It's NOT acceptable and it's not even a "legal requirement" for the train drivers to honk their horn provided they are travelling through towns at or under a certain speed.

At least a big percentage of the railway crossings between Acland and the Port of Brisbane have boom gates anyway, so especially at crossings with them, it's absolutely ridiculous that New Hope Coal's drivers are still blowing their horns from 10pm to 5am.

That is the time window which I suggested to JIM MCDONALD should be when the coal train drivers ought to be "banned" from honking their horns while travelling between Acland and the Port of Brisbane.

Where I live in Laidley, I am just plain lucky. I live close to the railway corridor, but I am "down in a dip". The railway line is probably around 3 metres higher than at ground level on my property. So the noise from the coal trains just passing through (not the horn noise) basically travels over my roof. 

They are noisy enough, let me tell you. Huge diesel locomotives roaring away. The train drivers can't do anything about that, but what they can do is stop being sociopathic morons, have some consideration for local residents in all these towns, including Laidley, and for fuck's sake, stop honking their horns from, I will say it again, 10pm to 5am, when approaching the railway crossings. 

In Laidley, I know that where the coal train drivers travelling west to Acland are honking the horn any time throughout the night is smack bang right alongside the Tabeel old people's home along Spicer Street. It's akin to elder abuse. It has to stop - permanently.