Road and Rail Noise measuring tool

The Department for Transport (DfT) seeks to procure specialist technical expertise to finalise new road and rail noise calculation methods. As noise policy and assessment are devolved matters, adoption of the method outside England would be a decision for the relevant Devolved Administrations.

The current methods, Calculation of Road Traffic Noise (CRTN, 1988) and Calculation of Railway Noise (CRN, 1995), no longer reflect modern vehicle technologies, infrastructure design or the latest evidence on environmental noise. New evidence-based methods have now been developed through joint research commissioned by the DfT, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), National Highways (NH) and the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) and require completion before they can be used.

This procurement will deliver the work needed to bring the new method to a fully usable and publishable standard. This includes consolidating the research outputs into a coherent four-part calculation method, producing an open-source reference implementation, completing outstanding integration and validation tasks, and supporting the Authority (DfT) during an initial beta testing period. The outcome will be a new single, authoritative document describing the calculation method for both road and rail noise that will supersede CRTN (1988) and CRN (1995).