Ground-Borne Noise and Vibrations Induced by Railway Traffic: From Environmental Impact Assessment to Exploration in New Railway Projects

The continued development and modernisation of railway networks, together with increasingly demanding expectations regarding human comfort, require careful assessment and mitigation of the effects of railway infrastructure on nearby buildings, their occupants, and vibration-sensitive equipment. Using a recently completed railway line in Portugal as a case study, this paper provides insights into predicting railway-induced ground-borne noise and vibration (GBN&V) during the environmental impact assessment stage. The initial predictions are compared with experimental measurements obtained during the exploration of the railway infrastructure, revealing a good match between predicted and observed ground-borne vibration levels. However, the direct application of the empirical FTA vibration-to-noise conversion factors underestimates the measured ground-borne noise levels. This discrepancy highlights the importance of the building-specific vibro-acoustic response and indicates that simplified conversion factors should be applied with caution.