Pelletstown train station - How do you make a noise complaint?

Whatever about engines idling while at the station (turning off and on the engine isn't realistic) but I have often thought that blowing the horn when coming into a station is ridiculous. The people at the near end of the station get their ears blow off while the people at the other end hardly notice. Surely an audible signal could be given across the PA system instead .

I agree. Let's shut down the station so you do not have to hear a horn from a train once a day. People like you are national heroes.

Just FYI an app from your phone will not be given the time of day in any complaint.

First step should be Irish Rail. Then planning enforcement in the council.

Not too sure how far you'll get as the horn is a safety prerequisite and the sound is not prolonged.

The answer to the question "how do you make a noise complaint?" is here: https://www.gov.ie/en/service/make-a-noise-nuisance-complaint/

Basically boils down to either contact those making the noise, contact the local authority, or contact the District Court.

By the way, I too would expect any projected 0.1 dB increase to be a daily, weekly, or even annual average rather than meaning no more than a 0.1dB increase in any instantaneous sound. Any train rolling past even slowly would have to make a noise of more than 0.1 dB at that particular moment.

I wondered that myself but am assuming it's not that it's just one train a day blowing its horn. Instead, it's just the one blowing it at half past midnight that's the particular problem, and that there are no real issues with horns at other times of day when there's more ambient noise around anyway.

Maybe also slightly off-topic, but I downloaded one of those sound level apps myself this morning out of curiosity, and left it running beside my computer for about half an hour during a Zoom call. Me speaking in a normal voice during that call gave readings of the order of 75 to 80 dB. Which suggests that either the noise (75dB, according to OP) isn't that excessive at all, or else is just proof of how inaccurate these things are.

The vibrations and sound from a idling bus are pretty intrusive and travel a good distance.

I imagine a train is far worse. I think the horn you could learn to live with it.

I live a fair bit back from the station and I grew up close to a train line so have never been bothered by trains but this one at night has woken me too. I can only imagine how intrusive it is for people facing the canal. The lighting is something else, like a set from close encounters of the third kind. I'm delighted we have the station but I think Manion is dead right that Irish Rail should make every effort to minimise the noise and light pollution for residents.

Where do these requirements come from? Are they based on any empirical evidence that safety is measurably improved? If feels like a hang-over from the 19th century.

There's no such requirement around most of Europe from what I recall. I have most experience of train systems in Switzerland which has one of the best train services in the world and such a "safety requirement" could never work there, as the vast majority of stations are unmanned, are near residential areas and see far higher non-stopping traffic than nearly any station in Ireland.