Could you live with a high speed rail line at the end of your garden.?

aliasojo

I think 4 trains an hour would very quickly become annoying never mind 10. I could cope with a few a day but definitely not 4 or 10 an hour, especially in the Summer when I wanted to sit out inthe garden and relax. Is this proposed development why the owners are selling?

My ex lives right beside a train line and his house developed cracking due to the constant vibration. Granted the vibration was so slight that he never really noticed it and it did take several years for this to happen but it happened none the less. The rail company did some remedial work on their line and also fixed his wall so it ended ok.

OP is the house so wonderful in every other respect that you could live with the train issue?

Hectors_House

jenner wrote: »

We have been looking at a house to buy which has a railway line at the bottom of the garden. The garden is very long, about 80 - 100 foot and currently has 4 trains an hour going past. The station is not that far away but we havent been there when a train has gone past so do not know what it will sound like.

A friend of mine lives in a house backing onto the railway line just before Beeston Station.

That in on the main line out of Nottingham used by London trains so is busy.

He says the only time he really noticed anything was last year when we had the earthquakes at just gone 1am. His first thought was that his house was haunted (because of his bedroom furniture moving around)....his first thought wasn't that it was a train going past.

As comparison I've just bought a house on the opposite side of Nottingham train station, on the line taking passanger and freight trains out to Newark and Lincoln.

This is in an area bisected by two lines - the one I'm on and the busier line going toward Grantham and I've not really noticed any noise to be honest.

My friend has a long back garden like you describe for the house you've looked at, and in my case the house is part of a mews built side-on to the line and I have three houses between mine and the track.

Can you get a viewing so that you are in the house and then wait for 2 or 3 trains to go past? If the house is empty you might hear more (we do as we're renovating the place), but in the long run some of any sound making it as far as the house will be absorbed by furniture, curtains etc. And it sounds like you'd have plenty of room to build a buffeting wall at the bottom of the garden if you felt the need for it later?

vegasvisitor

The house we are looking to buy (if we can sell) is also beside a railway. We really only live around the corner from the house (on the street parallel on the other side of the railway). Only thing is just now we're on the other side of the street, so it's our neighbours across the road whose gardens back onto the railway, and when we move (if we move) ours would also back onto that railway. It's very near the station (the back garden is over a wall from the end of the platform), and there is a tunnel so the trains certainly aren't travelling at any speed. Just now when we're in our garden we can hear the beep beep when the doors are closing on the train and that's about it. It's rather subtle though, and we're not bothered by it, nor worried about moving. It's an electric train line, not sure if there are other types across the UK. The house we want to buy has a long garden, then a wall and outhouse at the end. There is a wall then over the wall is a grass bank (45degrees steep) with bushes going down to the end of the platform. Because of the height difference I don't think you can see into the garden from the trains, maybe just the top floor windows (the two spare bedrooms at the back).

I agree with the other poster who mentioned going around and asking to spend time in the garden (although I'd feel a bit odd asking this myself it is the practical way to check). However, you won't know how it will be with the high-speed trains too.

Presumably you've had a look at other houses and this one is the best you have found?

Ladybird20

My mate lived in a house with a railway line at the bottom of the garden ,,and you do get used to it,,in time u dont even notice it believe it or not,, i think you have to have experienced this before you can really understand that you can get used to sucha noise.......altho,,i myself wouldnt want to purchase a house with a railway line at the bottom of the garden...if you like the home and its for you ,,then go ahead,,you do not in time hear the noise,,tho like i sed it wouldnt be for me...just my opinion,,,;)

Davesnave

To answer your question, yes, it will make a difference when you come to sell, so for that reason, you should be looking for a good reduction compared with the price it would be without the rail line.

That said, as others have pointed-out, there are advantages as well as disadvantages of having a line. The noise is intermittent & not at all like the constant drone of a motorway or other large road. You may find there are a few 'unlisted' night freight trains too, but in my experience, these soon become part of the 'usual noises' one filters-out whilst sleeping.

In the end, only you know your own tolerance level for noise and the types of noise that might annoy you. The tinnitus I suffer from intermittently drives some people mad, apparently, but I just feel if that's all I have, then I'm a lucky beggar.

Oh, and cats are smarter than people!

ukcarper

I think people who don’t live or have never live next to a railway can give you very good advice having not experienced it. The first house I owned was next to a railway and this didn’t put me off buying another. I am quite sensitive to noise for example if someone in the houses on the other side of the railway is having a party it keeps me awake. The downside is that they are quite noisy when you’re in the garden and sometimes they work on the tracks at night, which can keep you awake. But as I said earlier the line at the bottom of my garden is not a main line and I’m not sure I would like it if express and freight trains were belting passed the bottom of my garden every 5mins. By the way my back garden is about 25m long and there are Hawthorne a bushes at the bottom of it and my bedroom is it the back of the house. I couldn’t tell you how many trains we get going pass as I really don’t notice most of the time but I would think its about 6 which is a lot better than a noisy main road.