INNOTRACK

Private Area

Christine Moussalli — 2010-07-30T12:32:57Z

In order to match the dissemination objectives & to manage efficiently all the information related to INNOTRACK, the UIC has set up an Extranet Knowledge Management System. This system provides access to a database of experts, companies, events, and also to a document management system which allows to share the information. All the project participants can get their personnal access codes to the system.

Just click here to login or register

Partners

Christine Moussalli — 2010-07-30T12:29:01Z

In order to get a full representation of the rail sector in europe, Innotrack has been conceived as a plurilateral & international project.

It involves 36 partners from 11 european countries including international railway organisations as well as rail research specialised universities and representatives from rail operators, infrastructure managers and railway track industry suppliers.

The coordination is under the responsibility of the International Union of Railways.

If you need more information on an INNOTRACK partner, just click on the company name in the list below.

INNOTRACK Coordinator

Union Internationale des Chemins de fer

UIC

France

INNOTRACK Partners

Banverket	BV	Sweden
Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias	ADIF	Spain
Network Rail Infrastructure Limited	NR	United Kingdom
Österreichische Bundesbahnen – Infrastruktur Bau AG	OBB	Austria
Reseau Ferre De France	RFF	France
Ceské dráhy, a.s.	CD	Czech Republik
Association of the European Railway Industries	UNIFE	Belgium
European Federation of Railway Track Work Contractors	EFRTC	Luxemburg
Carillion Construction Ltd	Carillion	United Kingdom
Voestalpine Schienen GmbH	VAS	Austria
ALSTOM Transport SA	ALSTOM	France
Balfour Beatty Rail Projects Limited	BBRP	United Kingdom
Goldschmidt Thermit GmbH	Goldschmidt	Germany
Chalmers University of Technology	Chalmers	Sweden
Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées	LCPC	France
VOSSLOH COGIFER	VCSA	France
DB Netz AG	DB	Germany
SPENO INTERNATIONAL SA	SPENO	Switzerland
Railways safety and Standards Board	RSSB	United Kingdom
Delft University of Technology (Technische Universiteit Delft)	TUDelft	Netherlands
PRORAIL BV	PRORAIL	Netherlands
Czech Technical University in Prague	CTU	Czech Republik
Správa železnicní dopravní cesty	SZDC	Czech Republik
Corus	Corus	United Kingdom
Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français	SNCF	France
Damill AB	Damill	Sweden
University of Newcastle	NCL	United Kingdom
University of Southampton	ISVR	United Kingdom
University of Birmingham	Uni Bham	United Kingdom
Manchester Metropolitan University	MMU	United Kingdom
Universitaet Karlsruhe (TH)	UniKarl	Germany
G-Impuls Praha	G-Impuls Praha	Czech Republic
VAE	VAE GmBh	Austria
Contraffic GMBH	Contraffic	Germany
ARTTIC SA	ARTTIC	France
TenCate Geosynthetics Austria GmbH	TenCate	Austria

Reports

Christine Moussalli — 2010-07-30T10:33:19Z

Please find below the INNOTRACK Concluding Technical Report and all the Deliverables. These documents contain the results of the different activities of the project.They are sorted by Sub-Projects (SPs).

Concluding Technical Report

This Concluding Technical Report of INNOTRACK includes an overview of the project. It further details implementable results, and clusters them into ”highlight” areas. In addition, the book acts as a ”key” to the vast amount of information from INNOTRACK: All sections refer to project reports where more information can be found.


INNOTRACK Concluding Technical Report

Deliverable Overview

The EC funded integrated project INNOTRACK – Innovative Track Systems was initiated in September 2006 and finalized by the end of 2010.

The “Delivery Overview” contains the summaries of all INNOTRACK deliverables. The current issue includes deliverables submitted from the start of the project until late August.


INNOTRACK Deliverable Overview

Implementation

Christine Moussalli — 2010-07-29T14:05:10Z

Implementation Group

Forthcoming meetings

Workshop on Minimum Action Rules: 19-20 October 2010, Chalmers, Götheburg

Former meetings

2nd Implementation meeting: 8 July 2010, UIC, Paris
1st Implementation meeting: 20th of May 2010, UIC, Paris

Workshops and Courses

Coming soon

Workshop on Minimum Action Rules: 19-20 October 2010, Chalmers, Götheburg
Seminar with focus on sub-structure: 15 October 2009, UIC, Paris
Seminar with focus on track & switches: 14 October 2009, Infrabel, Brussels
Joint Workshop IMs and Contractors: 18 June 2008, UIC-Paris
Training Session: 26-27 February 2008, UIC-Paris

Implementation projects with regulatory bodies

General Assembly: 28 November 2007, UIC-Paris
General Assembly and UIC Workshop: 25 November 2008, Maison des Associations Internationales-Brussels
General Assembly: 19 January 2010, UIC, Paris
Kick-Off Meeting: 05-06 October 2006, UIC-Paris

Implementation projects with infra managers and industries

Joint Workshop IMs and Contractors: 18 June 2008, UIC-Paris

Highlights

Christine Moussalli — 2010-07-29T14:04:21Z

The result of innotrack is like a toolbox with many innovative solutions. Some selected solutions are presented as “highlights” in this chapter in order to give an overview of the contents of innotrack.

Some of these highlights are very technically oriented, while some are of a more overall nature. In addition there is a full list of implementable results from innotrack presented in the appendix VI of the Concluding Technical Report.

INNOTRACK, a brief summary of Highlights

A list of the highlights defined in the CTR is:

Subsoil assessment
Track stiffness
Four different methods for subgrade
improvements
Two innovative track-forms
A guideline for optimum selection of rail grades
Squat formation
Corrugation
Insulated joints
Rail cracks
Rail tests
Inspection methods and equipment to detect rail cracks
Grinding procedures
Welds with a narrow heat affected zone
Optimizations of switches & crossings
Numerical damage prediction and optimization of switch components
Open standard for electronic interlocking and hollow sleepers
Key parameters for switch monitoring systems
LCC evaluation methodology
Logistics solutions

Find here a few Highlights from the CTR.

Insulated joints

Cost driver Insulated joints impose a discontinuity in the rail. Due to this they will be subjected to high operational loads that may cause joint dips (leading to even higher loads) and material rollout (causing shortcircuiting of the signalling system). The remedial actions, unless detected at early stages of deterioration, often result in replacement and hence add significantly to maintenance costs and causes traffic disturbance.

Solution innotrack has carried out an extensive simulation campaign on the mechanical deterioration of insulated joints. In addition, field measurements have been made in order to verify simulations. The result is a significantly improved understanding of the influence of various operational parameters and the associated deterioration mechanisms.

Benefits The work in innotrack lays the foundation for prescribing joint geometry and allowable tolerances for different operational conditions. Furthermore, the improved understanding of deterioration mechanisms are also expected to contribute to improved designs of insulated joints.

Next steps The derived knowledge needs to be established in operational codes, “minimum action” handbooks and practices. Further increased knowledge is needed, e.g. regarding the influence of traffic situation, support conditions, material characteristics etc.

Corrugation

Cost driver Corrugation increases noise emission levels and wheel–rail contact forces. The standard mitigating action is grinding, which is costly and causes traffic disturbances. There is also some evidence for increased susceptibility of corrugated track to squat defects.

Solution innotrack has developed a method to determine allowable corrugation magnitudes with respect to noise pollution and risks for the formation of wheel and rail cracks.

Benefits The numerical toolbox that has been developed can be employed to determine grinding intervals etc.

Next steps The derived knowledge needs to be established in operational codes, “minimum action” handbooks and practices. To further optimize maintenance actions, deeper knowledge on corrugation growth and the relationship between operational loading conditions and crack formation would be valuable.

Rail cracks

Cost driver Cracks in rails are ultimately a safety problem. In order to prevent cracks to grow to failure, they need to be detected and mitigated in the early stages of growth. Further excessive overloads need to be avoided. Lack of accuracy in preventive measures, including the permissible passing loads, lead to increased costs and/or decreased levels of safety.

Solution The growth of rail cracks has been studied in innotrack with the aim of quantifying the influence of operational parameters and in predicting inspection and maintenance needs. An example of use is the identification of allowable load magnitudes induced by wheel flats.

Benefits With the work in innotrack, the accuracy of operational decisions and mitigating actions has increased. A particular benefit is that existing “minimum actions” can be examined and verified/revised using scientifically proven techniques.

Next steps The results from innotrack have already been employed for better regulations regarding operational loads. Harmonization on a European scale is needed. Furthermore, the work related to inspection intervals needs to be implemented in “minimum action” handbooks and codes and the technique extended to other key defects encountered on European networks.

LCC evaluation methodology

Cost driver One of the most significant complications in the introduction of innovative solutions in the track sector is the assessment of their lcc impact. This may lead to incorrect decisions and related increases in costs.

Solution innotrack has developed a stringent, unified methodology for lcc evaluations on a European level. The method provides the ability to evaluate the lcc impact of different scenarios. It further results in welldefined analyses that clearly define which factors that have been taken into account.

Benefits Apart from providing an objective tool for decision making, the lcc model developed in innotrack will be used for comparisons between different scenarios. Further it can highlight parametric influences such as the effect of adopting different discount rates or delaying interventions.

Next steps The methodology is currently in operational use e.g. at the db. The further European use is foreseen to lead to improvements such as a more extensive analysis of the influence of statistical scatter and the inclusion of improved models to predict deterioration.

Partners

Aymeric Boniou — 2010-07-29T13:54:17Z

- Others

Presentation

Aymeric Boniou — 2010-07-29T11:57:05Z

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.

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).

INNOTRACK Objectives

The EC White paper on Sustainable Transport called 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 was not sufficient, significant innovation and technology transfer was essential. This can only be achieved with very close cooperation between IMs and industry suppliers. It was 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.

INNOTRACK Researches

The objectives were dread 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 did:

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 challenges

One of the greatest challenges for the railways in Europe is to reduce track costs, the major cost component for Infrastructure Managers (IMs). The railway maintenance costs 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.

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

INNOTRACK actually

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 make 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 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 proposes, validates 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 to an end. A lot of interesting results are available on the website under the “Report” section, as well as the Concluding Technical Report.

INNOTRACK

Private Area

Partners

INNOTRACK Coordinator

INNOTRACK Partners

Reports

Concluding Technical Report

Deliverable Overview

Management (SP0)

Duty / Requirements (SP1)

Track Support structure (SP2)

Switches and Crossings (SP3)

Rails & Welding (SP4)

Logistics for track maintenance and renewal (Logserv) (SP5)

Life Cycle Cost & RAMS Assessment (SP6)

Dissemination and Training (SP7)

Implementation

Implementation Group

Workshops and Courses

Implementation projects with regulatory bodies

Implementation projects with infra managers and industries

Highlights

INNOTRACK, a brief summary of Highlights

Insulated joints

Corrugation

Rail cracks

LCC evaluation methodology

Partners

Presentation

INNOTRACK Objectives

INNOTRACK Researches

INNOTRACK challenges

INNOTRACK actually