Railway noise annoyance in residential areas: Current findings and suggestions for future research

Five published studies of railway noise annoyance in residential areas are reviewed. All the studies find that annoyance increases with railway noise levels and number of train passages. Two studies showed reactions to railway and road traffic noise as not strikingly different but the five studies do not agree on the actual relation between railway noise and annoyance. The apparent differences between the studies' findings may be due to genuine differences in annoyance reactions or to differences in study designs or measurement techniques. Some methods for ensuring more comparable results are suggested in the areas of sample design, questionnaire construction, observational data, and reporting of results.