Anyone bought land from Network Rail?

[ChooChooThomas]

Question as above.
Filled out a form online to buy some disused land at the back of our house. No value to anyone else due to lack of access except through our garden.
Has anyone else done it? Was it straightforward? How long did the process take?

I tried to buy a quarter of an acre, at the side of my railway station, only accessible through our garden too, twenty years ago. We heard back from Network Rail very quickly, they priced it at £20K.

Let us know how you get on.

Our solicitor wrote to them when we were buying this house to ask if they owned the end of our garden - no one else could have, but they very quickly denied having anything to do with it. So - free land All above board with adverse possession etc now.

Wow free land - that’d be the dream!

I’ve heard from neighbours it was used by the owner of this house in the 60s-80s ish but he got away with it as he worked for the railways.

Think we’ve got a good chance, they seem to have been down there last week as I noticed a bit had been trimmed that wasn’t before. I suppose first step of them surveying it.

@Salome61

I tried to buy a quarter of an acre, at the side of my railway station, only accessible through our garden too, twenty years ago. We heard back from Network Rail very quickly, they priced it at £20K.

Let us know how you get on.

I wonder if that was because it was next to a station and could be useful to them? The bit I’m after is next to an embankment. They’ve got access a bit further down to the lines with a bridge and steps. It’s just overgrown and unloved!

If they decide not to sell it, it could be for other reasons. How stable is the embankment? If not then the their geotechnicsl team could have objected to the sale in case they needed access from both above and below to repair/inspect/renew it. Or the time when they considered selling a patch of land which turned out to have an access point to a tunnel that would have meant the guys walked over a mile from the other end of the tunnel to get to it if they lost ownership of that land.

Hi - I'm interested to know how you got on with this?
Also, could you put a link to the form you used pls?