Letter: Railway Noise Has Increased in St Catherine’s

Published on: 24 Dec, 2020
Updated on: 25 Dec, 2020

The landslip at the entrance to St Catherine’s Sand Tunnel that required the extensive repair work.

From Ross Manson

As the Network Rail works at St Catherine’s Tunnel near completion, it seems that one nuisance has been replaced by a new and ongoing nuisance.

The works to stabilise the railway cutting were clearly necessary, but the works, ongoing now for over 12 months, have caused significant disruption to neighbours through increased heavy industrial traffic and often 24-7 machinery noise and rail traffic.

These works have been tolerated by nearby residents, but track noise when trains are passing has now been observed to have increased significantly in recent months. While it is unclear whether this is due to increased train speeds through the St Catherine’s area or to changes in rolling stock (or indeed some other reason), the noise levels are now in many instances intolerable.

I am interested to know if other residents have experienced this noise nuisance and whether an approach should be made to Network Rail seeking the introduction of appropriate noise abatement measures.

Response from Network Rail spokesman following consultation with South West Trains:

Sometimes it can be the case that rains running lighter may be nosier or give off different sounds to normal due to them being unladen (like an empty trailer being towed that could ‘rattle’ more than a loaded one).

Also, depending on the type of train, it may be that they’re able to accelerate faster with the lighter load, and the neighbours may not be used to trains travelling at line speed in the area where, historically, they would== be accelerating in with coaches full of people.

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