Effects of railway noise and vibration in combination: field and laboratory studies

• Most socio-acoustic surveys show that railway noise causes less general annoyance than road traffic and aircraft noise. While speech interference is recognized as a dominating effect of railway noise, few studies have investigated how railway noise affects sleep. Vibrations induced by trains may be a severe problem in areas where the ground consists of clay, especially near railway lines with heavy freight traffic. There is, however, little knowledge of the combined effects of noise and vibrations from railway traffic, especially on sleep. Railway transport is steadily increasing both in number, speed and more heavily loaded freight trains. New knowledge is therefore needed on the combined effects (e.g. annoyance and sleep disturbances) of noise and vibration, effects of a very large number of trains and if and under what conditions a railway bonus is justified. The large Swedish research project TVANE (Train Vibration and Noise Effects) addresses these research questions. This paper presents preliminary results from ongoing socio-acoustic surveys involving residents (n=980) living at different distances from the railway line in areas without train vibrations and in areas with different levels of vibrations (0.10 - 1.43 mm/s) induced by trains. Furthermore, results from experimental studies on the combined effects of noise and vibrations on sleep quality and sleep disturbances are presented. It is concluded that railway vibration levels used in the experiment (1.4 mm/s) disturb sleep to a greater extent than the railway noise levels (Lnight 31 dB). Results from field studies confirm the strong effect of railway vibrations on sleep. An interaction effect exists between noise and vibration and general annoyance to railway noise increases when combined with railway vibration.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Arbetsmedicin och miljömedicin (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Occupational Health and Environmental Health (hsv//eng)

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