Environmental Statement volume 4 - Chiltern Evergreen3

in order to evaluate the noise climate along this busy section of railway andone location in a rural area at Oddington Crossing (NML 8), which, apart fromoccasional trains on the existing Bicester to Oxford service, was dominated byroad traffic noise from the A34. Weather data has been used from the nearbyMet Office weather station at Benson to identify periods where themeasurements may have been adversely affected.Data recorded at Rewley Road (NML 21) during periods of rain or when windspeeds exceeded 5 m/s have been compared with adjacent data recorded ingood weather conditions. No significant difference was found and all noisedata have been used. Measurements made at William Lucy Way (NML 19) onall days during the hours 10.00, 14.00, 15.00 and 16.00 were subject to rain and/ or wind speeds greater than 5 m/s, however adjacent data shows nosignificant variation and the lowest recorded hour in each case has been used.During the midday hour on all days, poor weather conditions also prevailedand adjacent data shows a significant decrease in noise level. In this case, thelowest recorded daytime hour has been used. Measurements made at WilliamLucy Way (NML 19) have been used to calibrate the shorter attended daytimeand night-time measurements at Merrivale Square and Cox’s Ground nearby(NML’s 17 and 18). Where rain has been noted during measurements atOddington Crossing, the noise data has been discarded. Where ‘No data’ hasbeen recorded, data has been used only where local weather reports indicatedno rain had occurred. Where wind speed in excess of 5 m/s was recorded, thenoise data have been disregarded.Road traffic noise influenced levels at all the receptor locations to the north ofthe Oxford North Junction and at night-time was the dominant factor whenother, closer sources subsided. Measurements carried out at these locationsduring the night-time (NML’s 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 14), have been extrapolatedto account for the decrease in road traffic late at night and early in themorning, using the measurements recorded at Oddington Crossing.Measurements carried out during the daytime were made at off-peak timesand therefore represent a conservative estimate of the overall daytime noiseclimate.North of the Oxford North Junction, trains run infrequently with freight traintimes being unpredictable. For this reason, measurements have been made inthe absence of trains, and train noise has been predicted and combined withmeasured levels. Noise from the existing Bicester to Oxford service has beenpredicted according to the Calculation of Railway Noise (CRN) (1) .The current GWR passenger service consists of Class 165 DMU’s. Currentpassenger service levels are based on The First Great Western Oxford to Bicestertimetable for the period 17 th May 2009 to 12 th December 2009. These are presentedin Table D2.2. Freight train movements at present comprise up to one stonetrain each day to Banbury Road, one train most days to Bicester MoD and onetrain, with occasionally two moving waste to Calvert waste terminal. One(1) Calculation of Railway Noise. The Department of Transport. 1995ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENTD-3CHILTERN RAILWAYS