INNOTRACK objectives

INNOTRACK is a unique opportunity to bring together rail infrastructure managers (IM) and industry suppliers, the two major players in the rail industry, and to concentrate on the research issues that will contribute to the reduction of rail infrastructure Life Cycle Cost (LCC).

The EC White paper on Sustainable Transport calls for rail operators to double passenger traffic & triple freight traffic by 2020 and reduce LCC by 30%.

The Railway Business Scenario 2020 also calls for railways to capture 15% of freight & 12% of the passenger market.

To achieve these objectives, investment alone is not sufficient, significant innovation and technology transfer is essential. This can only be achieved with very close cooperation between IMs and industry suppliers. It is essential that the IMs, as the end users, set out their priorities and needs, at a European Level, to solve the necessary problems for achieving the white paper objectives.

 
 

This will be done by performing research on four key topics:

  • Track support structure
  • Switches and Crossings
  • Rails and welding
  • Logistics for track maintenance and renewal

To ensure that cost reductions can be consistently evaluated across Europe, INNOTRACK will also devise an innovative generic methodology for LCC calculation, based on best LCC practices at EU level, to be used by all IMs across Europe.

For each of the research topics, INNOTRACK will:

  • Analyse the root causes of identified issues on a European scale taking into account the effect of different duty conditions whilst providing product and service solutions for cheaper and longer lasting tracks
  • Provide innovative solutions to reduce failure rates and decrease LCC of material, equipment, machinery and systems
  • Draw together common European specifications regarding Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS) combined with LCC

Finally, INNOTRACK will assure a wide dissemination through UIC and UNIFE: two organisations representing Infrastructure Managers and industry.

 

INNOTRACK Objectives

One of the greatest challenges for the railways in Europe is to reduce track costs, the major cost component for Infrastructure Managers (IMs). The maintenance cost for trades have not significantly decreased in the last 30 years. In the same period of time, competing modes of transportation have seen a tremendous reduction of Life Cycle Costs (LCC). This narrows the business case for rail transportation.

In addition to costs, noise pollution also has become a crucial issue for railway operations.

    Both issues can only be tackled by increasing R&D and standardisation at European level. This is addressed by the EC White Paper on Transport (September 2002) that sets ambitious targets for railway operations. These targets include:
  • Doubling passenger traffic and triple freight traffic by 2020
  • Improving travel time by 25% – 50%
  • Reducing life cycle cost by 30%
  • Reducing noise to 69 dB for freight and 83 dB for high speed
  • Increasing safety – reduce fatalities by 75%

    The Railway Business Scenario 2020 also requires that:
  • Railways capture 15% of freight and 12% of passenger market

This expected railway market share growth requires improvement of the current levels of reliability and availability of products and services framed by a market-oriented railway system approach. The Railway Vehicle Industry has responded to the new challenges set before it, and will continue to respond by implementing;

  • Increased speed and acceleration
  • Increased axle loads and traction power
  • More rigid vehicles with greater stiffness

These innovations however have a downside: they place greater demands on the track, causing more damage and higher maintenance costs.

 

INNOTRACK’s main objective is to reduce the LCC, while improving the RAMS characteristics (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety) of a conventional line with a mixed traffic duty.

Railways also endure various other problems: they have suffered for too long from innovative technologies that turn out to be too ambitious and expensive to maintain. At a previous World Congress of Rail Research, it was claimed that two-thirds of all railway research is undertaken by the supply industry and this leads to significant innovation in products and services offered by the industry. However, the time to market and acceptance by IMs needs to be significantly reduced to justify the continued investment in R&D by the supply industry. To decrease time to market while reducing LCC, a European approach is required to support economy of scales and standardisation of railway infrastructures.

INNOTRACK will also implement appropriate changes to specifications and standards to achieve reduced LCC, time to market and cost of safety.

As an overall measurable objective, through the innovations and changes provided by INNOTRACK, the IMs are expecting from INNOTRACK a 30% LCC reduction of track-related costs.

INNOTRACK will provide railway infrastructure managers with crucial information and technologies to facilitate the understanding and implementation of leading edge track system technologies, which can effectively contribute to LCC optimisation:

  • Track support structure
  • Switches and crossings
  • Rails
  • Logistics for track maintenance and renewal

Furthermore, decision-making algorithms will be developed in order to harmonise the LCC calculation and provide comparison points on a European wide basis.

The INNOTRACK project is a joint response of the major stakeholders in the rail sector – IMs and the railway supply industry – for the development of cost effective high performance track infrastructure, aiming at providing innovative solutions towards significant reduction of both investments and maintenance of infrastructure costs.

    This is needed:
  • To develop the necessary leading edge track system technologies in the shortest possible timescales and ensure full market acceptance by IMs
  • To speed up the realisation of the highly efficient Trans-European network so as to accommodate the increased passenger and freight traffic by 2020 as envisaged in EC White Paper.

To achieve these objectives investment alone, even if achieved to the desired level by EC (220 billion for 30 TEN projects and 600 billion for all TEN projects), is not sufficient. A radical step change of the efficiency of rail systems including significant innovation and technology transfer is essential.

INNOTRACK provides a unique opportunity to deliver its contribution to these objectives by bringing together all major stakeholders – manufacturing and contractor supply industry, Infrastructure Managers, Railway Undertakings, System Integrators supported by European research excellence in order to concentrate on the research issues that will assist these ambitious objectives to be achieved.

 

The technology-driven research will focus on track support structure, switches and crossings, rails, and efficiency of logistics for renewal and maintenance, from the point of view of reducing LCC of track structures. INNOTRACK will propose, validate and implement track design solutions towards creating common European standards that respond to the demands for higher traffic volume, higher performance in terms of RAMS and LCC without compromising safety.

Today, INNOTRACK has come halfway. A lot of interesting result is successfully pout on the website under results.

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