Would you buy a house that backed onto a train line?

[nicolllaaaaaaa]

Hello, Great house, great area. Backs onto a trainline. Would love some perspective. Thank you.

You tune it out very quickly. Just watch out for tooting (at crossing/station) or freight/heavy trains that may be noisy at night, but even that would probably be less intrusive after a few weeks.

I have a relative who lives near the trainline, it isn't that loud and I love it at night, I find the sound really soothing.

Funnily it feels more private as we aren't overlooked by other houses.

How big is the garden ? I bet some decent planting would cushion the noise a bit and add privacy if it isn't a raised track ?

Any chance of a link so we I can see what we think, only asking because I am incredibly nosy

No. We viewed a house that was otherwise perfect but the Trainline put us off.

What kind of trains, and what is the service like? For 8 months, I lived behind a train track that has freight trains running regularly through the night. I didn't get used to the noise and barely slept at all. I can still recall my first night there, I thought a herd of elephants were tearing through the house. It was hideous, terrified the life out of me.

Presently, I live somewhere that sits directly over the tube, and I can faintly hear the trains although thankfully, it is a low rumble of thunder like noise and nowhere near as loud as where I lived previously.

Personally, if I were you, I would go view the house but ask if you can spend some time there to properly evaluate how noisy it is. Also, remember at night, if trains do run, it will be louder as there is no other noise to absorb the sound.

Only if the garden was long enough that you could screen it with trees. It’s not the noise that would bother me but the being gawped at in my back garden / kitchen.

We did. It was a branch line so not a main line with loads of trains rattling past. We did have a works train pass very loudly and slowly one time in the middle of the night which woke us up but it was actually lovely living there. The flying Scotsman even went past one day. When we moved we really missed hearing the trains. The traffic driving past our new house disturbed us more and it wasn’t even a main road.

Yes! My old house had a trainline sort of along the side of it and I loved it! After a couple of months I didn't even notice when a train went past

I love the sound of trains so I definitely would. I think would want quite a good, long garden though and have good double glazing.

We are quite close to a train line, not quite backed onto it but only a house or 2 away. We hear the train but doesn't annoy me at all. It's not a very frequent line tbh and it's also lower than the houses so we can't see it and more importantly they can't see us! Id live in the house that's backed onto I think, wouldn't put me off too much.

Also unlikely to be built on!

Is the house near a station so that the passing trains are going relatively slowly? Are there fast trains passing that don't stop at the local station?

My house backs onto the underground tracks in London and I don't find it a problem. I have a small garden and double glazing; I can see into the train from upstairs window (I can see if the carriages are packed or empty but not enough to actually identify anyone!). I'm very close to the station (

Yes, I would.

Train line noise IME is much less intrusive than traffic noise because the trains don’t stop/start/idle/rev.

No. I'd hate it. I couldn't cope. I live on a main road now and hate it.

What’s it like sitting in the garden? Also trains are less frequent at moment so don’t assume when you visit is normal.

If ok then great!

Also, I've been a passenger on the train and I couldn't look into my garden. The angles don't quite work. Only time I felt 'overlooked' was when TfL people where working directly on the tracks behind my house and that was once in 6 years, for about 10 minutes at the most. Mind you, I don't know what you have planned for your garden !

I lived in one for years, never even noticed the train. The reason I didnt buy on that street was Japanese Knotweed. The train yard was riddled with it and it found its way into some gardens.

My garden backs onto the metropolitan line. Our garden is about an acre so it's a fair distance from our house. The first night I was really conscious of the trains but I genuinely don't notice them now. The embankment is quite wooded so I don't feel the passengers are looking at us, though it's a bit more visible in winter when the leaves fall.

It really doesn't bother me, in fact I quite like looking at the trains trundle past. It helps that they're quite slow so don't make much noise (it's not like the intercity trains whooshing past).

Living on a single track road that people like to use as a rat run, creating a lot of road rage amongst road users bothers me far more...

Yes I would. At you know you’re not going to get houses built behind you

Funnily enough I was thinking about this yesterday, as I really love trains. I wouldn’t though, because I’d be scared of the cat going on the lines.

In an ideal world no, but depending on the frequency and noise of trains, length of garden and the first and last trains possibly. Many multi million pound houses back on to the district line, for example. But frequent, noisy, high speed, trains or worse freight/ sleeper trains overnight, no way.

My kids would love this, it would be a plus 😂. It wouldn't bother me if the garden was decent size.

Yes, but there are train lines and train lines. When we were looking in SW London 20 years ago there was a very popular area with young families where you often got 10-15 feet of courtyard and then a very busy commuter line into Clapham Junction and Waterloo on a level with the house. Didn't buy in that area in the end. But I have bought with a train line in a deep cutting behind a 60 foot garden which we honestly barely noticed. Would far rather a train line than a road.