Buying a house near train line

[Artistic]

We have finally found a house that meets all our requirements. The only catch is that there is a south west train line running at about 50-75 feet diagonally away from the house (can't see or hear it much). Based on some layman research we've understood about the magnetic fields generated by passing trains & the health repercussions of it. This is a highly debated issue & there are parties on both sides but fundamentally we want to know what is the actual electromagnetic field reaching the house. Has anyone done this before? Has it worried anyone who has bought a house like this?

On average there are 6 trains passing every half hour which amounts to 200 trains in 24 hours approx. We don't want to ignore it but also we don't want to miss the house if the actual magnetic fields are low. Completely stuck & not sure how to proceed! Any advice or input is appreciated.

Is the house fairly new? We bought near a substation, and before we did, I googled the free-access council planning records, for our council area anything post late 90s has all the planning documents freely available as it was all scanned and uploaded to prevent need for "real" storage. Most useful! When they granted pp for our house one of the info sheets was the EMF readings (which showed an absolutely minimal set of readings both in the garden and in the house, less than standing near to a working fridge and equivalent to the background EMF from a standard road with underground power cables present (ie every non rural road in the UK). So that reassured us about the EMF. Worth checking for your property.

I would say, though, that next to a railway would put off a lot of buyers even with a long garden so only buy if it wouldn't drive you crackers, and you are pretty sure you won't ever need to flog it in a hurry. I'd be much more cautious about a next-to-railway property....are there trees to block/buffer the sound? Does it have double/triple glazing? Are you a live-in-garden type?

We looked at quite a few houses that had train lines close by. The houses themselves were lovely but the railway line put us of for a couple of reasons.

The noise was a concern but to be honest it wasnt that bad with double glazing (although you could hear the trains if sitting in your garden!) Worse than the noise was the vibrations you felt - the vibrations were stronger that I realised they would be. I was also worried with young children not only about them climbing on to the railway but the magnetic field concerned me too.

Also - we noticed that the houses close to the railway line took much longer to sell. I guess it puts lots of people off and if you are planning to sell again at some point in the future this could affect how quickly you sell your house and the price you pay for it.

Good luck!

We bought a house with a railway line running behind it last year. Didn't give the electromagnetic thing a thought to be honest . It's not a hugely busy line and the noise doesn't bother us at all, in fact I barely notice it now after living here for over a year. Vibrations are only noticeable when we're in bed and then only when a large goods train goes past.

I think living near a train line is either something you can live with or not. Personally, I couldn't live on a busy road. Potential re-sale, as a PP said, is more of a concern.

Thank you for your replies. The house is not adjacent to the train line, it's at a distance of 50-75 meters & there are other houses in between. We've been to the house/garden 2-3 times & experienced neither sound nor vibrations. Infant we didn't even realise the tracks are so near until we looked at the whole neighbourhood on google maps.

We have a 7 year old & expecting DC2 later this year. Hence the added caution about magnetic fields.

I will look up the council records - thank you for that pointer. But am not surprised about planning permission (2012 construction) coz govt acceptable levels of EMF are 100 microTesla whereas the scientific research says that more than 0.4 microTesla could be harmful to small children. While household appliances may exceed this never at least it's in my control to rewire/switch off/change position or to never use. But I can't move the house or tracks so trying to find a company who can measure for us.

Your point about re-selling are very valid, hadn't thought of that. Thank you.

We are considering renting a EMF meter & doing some readings in the garden. The house is lovely otherwise we wouldn't even be trying all this. TBH I have low hopes on making it happen after a chat with an ERA engineer who told me that 300 meters is the minimum distance to achieve low EMF from railways & 1 km is the absolute safe distance. Sigh!

Vinomum - am sorry if my post alarms you. We didn't think about it either. Also the ERA engineer said that if all the people in the house are adults then there isn't much to worry about. Basically the younger the child the greater the concern, and since we will have a newborn we are in that boat!

Agree with you about the busy road too.

Agree with Vinomum. I would much rather be near a railway line than live on a busy road.

There is a railway line behind the houses across the road from us. I think there are 4 trains per hour. Only 4 or 5 carriages long though. Also, freight trains. Not many.

I admit I haven't researched electromagnetic fields but again I am more concerned about exhaust fumes from cars.

nothing is absolutely safe.

WHO says that there is no evidence of any measurable ill-effects from anything except extremely intense EMF. Somewhat surprised that an ERA engineer said there was anything to worry about.

if you are that worried, your house should be a TV, wi-fi and mobile phone free zone with no electrical supply and no electric motors. You'd also better never get on a train yourself or allow your kids to do so ; the train is a Faraday cage (although often has wi-fi now) but you can be exposed at the station.

but TBH the noise, vibration and resale issues are what you should really consider. And if it is a 2012 house, check the flood situation because many, many houses are being built on flood plains.

Within the house, I bet your cooker generates a bigger electromagnetic field. Never mind microwave or washing machine.

Thank you, All points taken on board. To be absolutely sure, we are getting an EMF survey done which will tell us all the EMF sources & exposures. Our decision will be based on the outcome. I will come back & share what we find. Fingers crossed!

I once lived in a rented property right next to a railway line in north Holloway, London. I was oblivious to the so-called EMF problem then but I remember the whole building literally shook each time a train passes by. The railway line was appx. 15-20 metres away from the back garden.

Earlier this year my DP was very, very eager to buy a colleague’s property just outside of north London. We were offered a very special price, I reckon appx. £50K below the market value as this was a very good friend and they were migrating. The property was immaculate. I had two issues with it; firstly, it was outside London and can prove inconvenient to DP and children because they all work/study in London but the second issue that categorically wiped the idea off buying this property is that it is situated appx. 20-30 metres away from some massive pylons that run along the back garden for as far as the eye could see.

Peteneras - thank you for your input. I do agree, wise decision to stay away from pylons, now that the link with childhood cancers is established.

What I do find is in London & outskirts its rather hard to find many properties that are really away from railway lines. When I think about it for the past 5 years out of 7 I have inadvertently lived less than 15 metres away from either train or tube lines! Only now that we are buying we are researching this topic more carefully.

Just coming back with some findings for those of you who are interested.

We had an EMF survey done of the property. The train is not a problem as its a DC line & the magnetic fields die at 10 metres from the tracks. We are further than that & neither the tracks nor passing trains affected the field readings. There is no sound or vibration from passing trains, Infact we can't even see it so we found it hard to say when the train will pass & had to use the timetable instead.

However if the trains were AC powered then we were well within damaging distance!! So it really depends on the type of power of the train in question!

Also checked for substations, mobile masts, powerlines, airport radars & thankfully all were negative.

There were more significant readings inside the property - most of which had to do with wifi, Xbox consoles, radio clocks, cordless phones etc - which belong to the current owners so not our worry.

The big find was the induction job which showed alarming EMF & which we will be now swapping for a gas cooker! (More spend!!)

We also had our own microwave oven checked & it showed a bit of leakage (though its Bosch & less than 2 years old), so we were advised to replace it with a new one or get rid of it altogether.

Overall - an eye opener!!

Interesting to know- thanks for sharing.

The track maintenance can be annoying. 15 noisy men and women turning up at midnight with flood lights and generators. It's not that often though, and you will get notified in advance if it's major work that's going to go on for a few nights.

BornOfFrustration - thanks for the heads up.

as I suspected!

so you'll have no wifi in the house, and I hope you aren't using a smartphone... Obvious check; does the property have mains gas? (If not, you can set up with an lpg hob)

the point about late-night railway maintenance is relevant.

Thanks for the update Artistic. Very interesting. I will be showing dh.

With regards to night time maintenance - we have been here almost a year and there has been one incidence of this. We were lettered beforehand and the kids and MIL (who was babysitting) slept through the whole thing.