UK rail proximity check
Is your UK property near a railway?
Free postcode check. Indicative distance, RAG rating, map and named rail features in seconds.
Free indicative result · No signup required · England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland
Used by homeowners, developers, architects, planning consultants and property investors.
How it works
Three steps. Less than a minute.
Enter your UK postcode
Type any UK postcode in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. No signup required.
Review the rail proximity
See the indicative distance to the nearest railway, a RAG rating and a map of nearby rail features.
Decide if further checks are needed
Use the free result to ask earlier rail-interface questions. Optional £29 PDF for a detailed report you can attach to a planning bundle.
Detailed PDF report — £29
Need something you can attach to a planning bundle?
When the free indicative check isn't enough, the £29 PDF report gives you a fuller picture, instantly.
- • Top 10 named rail features within 500 m
- • Asset operators (Network Rail, TfL, Metrolink and more)
- • Buffer-ring map (50 m / 100 m / 250 m / 500 m)
- • Network-specific engagement guidance
- • Work-type RAG escalation based on your planned scheme
- • Methodology, data sources and references
- • Delivered as a PDF, instantly after payment
Refunds issued on request if your postcode is outside our current coverage area. See Terms for full refund policy.
Single-site detailed report
7-page PDF · instant download
The £29 button appears with your free result.
Frequently asked
Common questions
How accurate is the indicative result?+
The result is calculated from the postcode centroid against railway geometry sourced from OpenStreetMap. It's a useful first-pass indicator but it does not represent the actual railway boundary, asset owner records, or asset protection limits. Use it to support early conversations, not engineering decisions.
What does the £29 detailed report add over the free check?+
The detailed PDF identifies the top 10 named rail features within 500 m, names the asset operators (Network Rail, TfL, Metrolink etc.), shows a buffer-ring map, gives network-specific engagement guidance, applies a work-type RAG escalation based on the works you plan to undertake, and includes a methodology page. It's designed to attach to a planning bundle or pre-application submission.
Which areas are covered?+
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Channel Islands and Isle of Man are not currently covered. Coverage includes mainline rail (Network Rail and others), London Underground, light rail networks (DLR, Tyne & Wear Metro, Manchester Metrolink) and major tram networks.
Is my data shared or sold?+
No. We never sell or share your data for marketing or advertising. The only third parties involved are the processors needed to deliver the service — Stripe for payments, postcodes.io for postcode lookup, Vercel for hosting, Cloudflare for DNS and email. See our Privacy Policy for the full list.
Can I use this for a planning application?+
The detailed PDF report is designed to support a planning bundle as an indicative pre-application screening — not to replace a formal interface assessment. It does not constitute engineering assurance, approval advice or asset-owner confirmation. For formal planning advice always engage the relevant railway asset owner and your planning consultant.
How fresh is the rail data?+
The rail geometry is a periodic snapshot of OpenStreetMap data — currently refreshed quarterly. The methodology page in every paid PDF report shows the exact snapshot date used for that report.
What if I lose my downloaded PDF?+
Save the PDF as soon as it downloads. If you lose it, contact us via the Queries box at the bottom of this page with your Stripe receipt reference and we'll resend it.
Who it's for
Built for UK rail-adjacent project professionals.
Rail Proximity is designed to support the day-to-day work of professionals whose schemes sit close to operational railway infrastructure. It is an indicative early-stage screening tool — not a substitute for formal asset protection engagement or engineering assurance — built specifically to bring the railway interface question into a project conversation earlier, before design and cost are locked in.
Chartered Civil Engineers
Use the indicative screen during concept and feasibility to flag railway interfaces before design progresses, and to support pre-application discussions with the relevant railway asset owner.
Structural Engineers
Identify proximity-driven design constraints (vibration, settlement, working space, crane positioning) early, while form, foundation type and lateral system options are still open.
Infrastructure Engineers
Get a fast, named-feature first view of the rail context for sites you have only just been briefed on, including operator and network type — useful when scoping interfaces, utility crossings or access strategies.
Railway Asset Protection Engineers
Use the report as a consistent, defensible starting point for third-party enquiries — the named features, distances and bearings give an unambiguous reference for early-stage triage.
Project Engineers & Managers
Add the railway interface to the project risk register from day one. The work-type RAG escalation gives a clear, distance-aware indicator of when the rail interface is genuinely on the critical path.
Design Engineers
Build the rail proximity context into your design narrative, planning statements and option appraisals, with sources and methodology that can be cited and challenged.
Property Developers & Investors
De-risk acquisition and feasibility decisions on sites close to operational rail, light rail or underground networks. Understand which asset owner is likely to be involved before you commit.
Planning Consultants & Architects
Bring a railway interface position into pre-application conversations with the local planning authority and the railway asset owner — with a screening evidence base you can attach to the bundle.
Homeowners near the railway
Understand at a glance how close a property sits to operational railway infrastructure, what network it belongs to, and whether early conversations with the asset owner are likely to be needed for extensions or basement works.
Why use Rail Proximity at all?
Early-stage railway interface checks are too often deferred to the engineering phase — by which point design changes are slow, expensive and politically difficult. A postcode-level indicative screen at concept or feasibility stage helps the right people ask the right rail-interface question earlier, before scheme commitment, planning submission, or costly structural decisions.
Questions or feedback? Use the Queries box below or email support@railproximity.co.uk.
What it does
- Resolves a UK postcode to an approximate location.
- Computes distance to currently loaded railway geometry.
- Returns an indicative RAG result with plain-English reasons.
- Produces a copyable text report and (optional) detailed PDF.
What it does not do
- Confirm railway land ownership or legal boundaries.
- Confirm asset condition, buried services or access rights.
- Provide approval advice or construction acceptance.
- Replace formal railway asset-owner engagement.
Early screening only
Outputs are indicative only. Railway geometry may not represent the railway boundary, asset-owner records or asset protection limits. Use the result to support early conversations, not as engineering assurance or approval advice.
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