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Since introduction of train services, 44 properties have qualified for noise barriers, and to ensure the most effective mitigation continuous barriers were installed in some locations. This resulted in a total of 68 properties receiving mitigation.

As the operator of the railway, Network Rail manages the process of compensation via the Land Compensation (Scotland) Act 1973. To date Network Rail has assessed that five households are eligible for acoustic barriers in lieu of compensation.

Acoustic barriers have been provided at properties which have met the trigger levels for noise disturbance.

Following the installation of the acoustic barriers, eleven properties representative of each section of track, were monitored to test the effectiveness of the barriers.

The Scottish Government does not consider that the Stirling-Alloa- Kincardine Railway (Route Re-opening) and Linked Improvements (Scotland) Bill Environmental Statement (2003) or consultation on the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine Railway (Route Re-opening) and Linked Improvements (Scotland) Bill were in breach of EU regulations or the European Convention on Human Rights.

There have been no measures carried out to notify the public of the impact on health of noise and vibration caused by freight trains specific to the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine railway line. The latest UK research on noise and health effects is included within the Health and Safety Laboratory Report (Quantifying the links between environmental noise related hypertension and health effects, July 2011), available on the DEFRA website.

The guidance and research detailed in The Mitchell Committee Report into Railway Noise and Insulation of Dwellings (1991) is the evidential basis for the standards being applied for protection from night time noise in the form of mitigation (noise barriers).

Information provided in support of parliamentary consideration of The Noise Insulation (Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems) Regulations 1996 is the evidential basis for the standards being applied for protection from night time noise in the form of secondary glazing.

Residents who consider the value of their property has been devalued as a result of the Stirling Alloa Kincardine Railway works may be eligible for compensation. Compensation may be payable under Part 1 of the Land Compensation (Scotland) Act 1973, provided qualifying property owners along the new railway line can demonstrate that they have suffered financial loss due to devaluation of a property as a result of the re-opening of the Stirling – Alloa – Kincardine Railway.

Local authorities have a duty under regulation 4 of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 to take reasonable steps to achieve the active and systematic dissemination of information to the public and to make that information progressively available to the public by electronic means.

Local authorities are able to publish noise monitoring data on that basis.

Properties selected for monitoring were considered to be most likely to experience noise from train operations and deemed to be representative of other properties along the length of the reopened section of track with a similar relationship to the track in terms of both vertical and horizontal displacement.