Do Network Rail need to give notice of overnight track repairs

[fowler9]

Just a query. If Network Rail are doing standard track repairs overnight do they need to give notice to people living backing on to the railway or nearby. This isn't me having a moan by the way, I live backing on to the Liverpool to London line in south Liverpool and love it, the house isn't overlooked and is silent at night for 99% of the year. The only time we ever got notice was when they cut back trees and I think that was done in the daytime anyway.

 

[185143]

Off topic but hello as you will have seen me go past at least 6 times this week

 

[EM2]

I live right next to the Gospel Oak-Barking line, and they occasionally put a letter through the letterbox if they're doing something really noisy, but by no means always.

 

[fowler9]

Off topic but hello as you will have seen me go past at least 6 times this week

Ha ha, hello back. I'm sure I have seen a good number of trains fellow posters have been on. I've probably shared a few with you as I occasionally jump a train to Parkway and got a bus or something back to West Allerton where our mansion is situated near.
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I live right next to the Gospel Oak-Barking line, and they occasionally put a letter through the letterbox if they're doing something really noisy, but by no means always.

Yeah, we have had the occasional letter. Just wondering if they were legally obliged to do so. I wouldn't have thought so. It is in relation to a former work colleague having a moan. She wants to make a complaint but I'm telling her all she will get is a "Sorry we disturbed you".

 

[Darren R]

In my experience it's a little bit hit-and-miss, and seems to depend on what they are planning. Routine stuff we don't know about until the Orange Army turn up, but we generally get a letter in advance of work that is being done each day/night for a week or longer, or if the planned work is going to be particularly noisy or disruptive (such as felling trees.) Some fairly major work is planned on the neighbouring railway line here over the summer, (well, major for this line anyway! ) and we have had visits from the Community Relations bods to discuss the work.

I can only speak from experience - I don't know what the official policy is - but in getting on for 40 years next to the railway only the current infrastructure owners have ever told us in advance. The only communication we ever had from BR was when the land rent was due!

 

[185143]

Off topic but hello as you will have seen me go past at least 6 times this week

Ha ha, hello back. I'm sure I have seen a good number of trains fellow posters have been on. I've probably shared a few with you as I occasionally jump a train to Parkway and got a bus or something back to West Allerton where our mansion is situated near.
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I live right next to the Gospel Oak-Barking line, and they occasionally put a letter through the letterbox if they're doing something really noisy, but by no means always.

Yeah, we have had the occasional letter. Just wondering if they were legally obliged to do so. I wouldn't have thought so. It is in relation to a former work colleague having a moan. She wants to make a complaint but I'm telling her all she will get is a "Sorry we disturbed you".

You probably have! I don't do saveaways very often, but Birchwood is my local shack so I'm just down the track really.

 

[fowler9]

In my experience it's a little bit hit-and-miss, and seems to depend on what they are planning. Routine stuff we don't know about until the Orange Army turn up, but we generally get a letter in advance of work that is being done each day/night for a week or longer, or if the planned work is going to be particularly noisy or disruptive (such as felling trees.) Some fairly major work is planned on the neighbouring railway line here over the summer, (well, major for this line anyway! ) and we have had visits from the Community Relations bods to discuss the work.

I can only speak from experience - I don't know what the official policy is - but in getting on for 40 years next to the railway only the current infrastructure owners have ever told us in advance. The only communication we ever had from BR was when the land rent was due!

Cheers for sharing your experiences mate. We have lived in this house for some 30 years and never had a problem. Occasional track replacement, changes to the knitting overhead etc. A few occasions when trees have been cut back. Like I say it doesn't bother me. I get more disturbed overnight when staying with friends near busier roads. We have a signal right at the bottom of the garden so have occasionally had various forms of diesel motive power revving up at the bottom of the garden.
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You probably have! I don't do saveaways very often, but Birchwood is my local shack so I'm just down the track really.

Indeed you are, I was a regular at Birchwood working for Vodafone (Hated it, Vodafone not Birchwood ). I also spent 5 years traveling to Warrington to visit the girlfriend of the day. Lived in Orford and later near Victoria Park.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

My UK home is 4 miles north of Preston and backs onto the WCML. NR always sends out letters/notifications when overnight work is going to take place.

 

[The Snap]

You'll probably find that the Maintainer don't bother doing letter drops because their work is so frequent and routine.

Most, if not all, Contactors carrying out large or even smaller projects will carry out letter drops however. It’s a milestone for KPIs and KRAs to keep the public informed. The letters are invariably on NR headed paper and signed by a communications rep from NR, but the content is normally provided by the Contractor's project team. I know, I've written several .

 

[fowler9]

My UK home is 4 miles north of Preston and backs onto the WCML. NR always sends out letters/notifications when overnight work is going to take place.

That is good to hear. We don't always get them by ours. Doesn't bother me really, from what a few friends said it bothers them though. Not entirely sure what the would have done if they'd known in advance.
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You'll probably find that the Maintainer don't bother doing letter drops because their work is so frequent and routine.

Most, if not all, Contactors carrying out large or even smaller projects will carry out letter drops however. It’s a milestone for KPIs and KRAs to keep the public informed. The letters are invariably on NR headed paper and signed by a communications rep from NR, but the content is normally provided by the Contractor's project team. I know, I've written several .

In thirty years living next to a four track mainline I have rarely come across a letter. It is good to hear it does happen though. Like I say it doesn't really bother me. The railway is 99% of the time our quietest and most predictable neighbour.

 

[Ploughman]

When I worked for a Track Renewal firm, we always notified the residents that would be affected by any noise.
This was not a requirement brought in by NWR but it was a policy that we had worked under since at least 1992.
It was adopted by NWR as a standard requirement during the early 2000's

From the residents point of view this then gave them a contact phone or address to make a comment to, either good or bad.
At the outset it was my name and phone on the letter for our patch and I could estimate where the gang that I had tasked with playing postman were by the phone calls I received usually within 10 minutes of the letter dropping through the door.
Thankfully NWR took over the responsibility for addressing the comments and their number went on the letter but we still had the delivery to look after.

Railtrack and NWR however are or were the worst at providing any notice to residents.
Usually blaming short notice of a work site. Not an excuse that they would let us get away with.

 

[LeeLivery]

I live next to the Sydenham Corridor of the Brighton Main Line and I haven't had one notification from NR in the two odd years I've lived here. They just recently did track replacements over a weekend and I didn't know it was happening until I looked out my window on the Saturday morning. Honestly I'm not fussed by it but I could see people getting annoyed with all the noise and bright lights for three nights and two days.

 

[apk55]

My house is about 18M (road 10M + 8M front garden) from a railway line and I regularly receive notification from network rail of work being done at night.

 

[alxndr]

Our flat backs onto the railway, in the 10 months we've been here we've had two letters about piling work potentially being carried out over a large mileage over a various weeks. Not all that helpful (I'd rather have a certainty so I could ask for an overtime night shift!) but obviously it's impossible to predict work like that. Equally impossible to predict and inform anyone of any emergency works.

Interesting I've only just thought about the fact that it was on NR headed paper when the work is being done by Amey contractors.

I definitely agree with the sentiment that the railway is a very good neighbour though, if I stay anywhere else I get more interrupted by the very frequent, very short "trains" that keep going past, until I realise they're cars!

 

[fowler9]

Our flat backs onto the railway, in the 10 months we've been here we've had two letters about piling work potentially being carried out over a large mileage over a various weeks. Not all that helpful (I'd rather have a certainty so I could ask for an overtime night shift!) but obviously it's impossible to predict work like that. Equally impossible to predict and inform anyone of any emergency works.

Interesting I've only just thought about the fact that it was on NR headed paper when the work is being done by Amey contractors.

I definitely agree with the sentiment that the railway is a very good neighbour though, if I stay anywhere else I get more interrupted by the very frequent, very short "trains" that keep going past, until I realise they're cars!

Ha ha. It is true I think if you have lived by railways. Even before the 30 years in our current house we always lived by railways. We would go and stay with family friends in Market Harborough and me and my brother just couldn't sleep because of the constant cars going past over night. I had a similar thing with a girlfriend living near a busy road in Warrington more recently. Ha ha. It is weird. I find it quite serene living by the railway.

 

[alxndr]

Ha ha. It is true I think if you have lived by railways. Even before the 30 years in our current house we always lived by railways. We would go and stay with family friends in Market Harborough and me and my brother just couldn't sleep because of the constant cars going past over night. I had a similar thing with a girlfriend living near a busy road in Warrington more recently. Ha ha. It is weird. I find it quite serene living by the railway.

Definitely, everyone asks if it's noisy living where I do, but being down a cul-de-sac means there no nasty cars, just trains. I've always lived in earshot of the railway, so it's just normal for me. It was a little different going from a mile from the East Suffolk line to 51 yards from the nearest line of the GWML though admittedly.

 

[hassaanhc]

Ha ha. It is true I think if you have lived by railways. Even before the 30 years in our current house we always lived by railways. We would go and stay with family friends in Market Harborough and me and my brother just couldn't sleep because of the constant cars going past over night. I had a similar thing with a girlfriend living near a busy road in Warrington more recently. Ha ha. It is weird. I find it quite serene living by the railway.

My 2013/2014 uni room was right by a main road leading to the Woolwich Ferry, so had lots of HGVs going past. At home I do live just off a main road, but being right beside one was hard to get used to, especially with more than average numbers of HGVs and larger vehicles going past. Buses don't bother me however . This year's room is further away and the nearest bit of the road is blocked by the building opposite, and what a difference! Don't know how people live next to busy dual carriageways or even on main roads that are on hills, with all the noise that would bring.
At home it also about a mile from the GWML at Southall, and can often hear train horns all this distance away! The uni room was also next to the DLR and I hardly noticed the trains going past, even they blew their horns when empty stock and passing the nearby station.

 

[Waddon]

I live next to the railway line from West Croydon to Sutton, and have done so for more than 15 years. I think in all that time I've received maybe 2 notices of work, and one of those didn't happen! However major works such as the redesign of tracks leading up to West Croydon all took place overnight or weekends with no prior notification, and lots of noise. The Croydon tramlink passes by nearby too and they are the same, occasional notifications of work that's miles away, and no notification of major track grinding and constant pneumatic drills from 2am to 6am almost outside the door