ABSTRACT
The first urban light railway to be built in the UK was the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in London, which opened in 1987. A stringent noise specification for the railway was expressed in parameters commonly used for the assessment of environmental noise. However, when the railway was opened, it caused serious problems of noise annoyance to residents in certain locations.
The Acoustics Group at South Bank University carried out noise and social surveys in areas around the DLR. These showed that noise annoyance occurred even where the specification was complied with or only marginally exceeded. The major cause of annoyance was low frequency noise radiated by lightweight steel and concrete viaducts. The surveys showed that current methods of assessing the environmental impact of railway noise in the UK were not appropriate in the case of a new railway which caused high levels of low frequency sound.
