Railway Track for the 21st Century

The majority of the world's railways - including all main lines in the UK - are currently on ballasted track. Although there have been developments in component specifications and materials, the principles of the system have changed little over the past 150 years. Ballasted track has generally been considered to offer the optimum solution in terms of construction cost, stiffness and drainage properties, and ease of modification: thus although more highly engineered track forms have been used (e.g. in Japan, Germany and China), ballasted track has been employed both for upgrades such as the UK West Coast Main Line and for new high speed lines including HS1 (UK), TGV (France) and AVE (Spain). However, the limitations of ballasted track as currently constructed are becoming more apparent and more significant as the demands placed upon it have increased. This has led to higher than expected maintenance requirements and costs, and demonstrates that a transformation in track performance - by retro-fit measures for existing ballasted track, or by an informed decision in favour of an alternative track system in the case of large-scale renewals - is essential if the Government's aspirations of reduced cost and increased capacity for rail transport are to be realised. This Programme Grant will bring about a step-change improvement in the engineering, economic and environmental performance of railway track making it fit for a 21st century railway, by developing new techniques for its design, construction and maintenance. By obtaining a better understanding of the behaviour of track components, the interactions between them and their response to external loading and environmental conditions, the performance of railway track can be significantly enhanced. Improved understanding will allow the development of more effective and efficient maintenance and renewal strategies, leading in turn to reduced costs, increased capacity and improved reliability. The Programme Grant will also enable a radical overhaul of current railway track design appropriate for both new build (e.g. HS2) and upgrades to meet current and future train loading requirements more efficiently than is at present possible. Meeting these challenges will require a coordinated programme of research to investigate how the various components of the track system relate to each other and to external factors. This will involve a series of inter-related experiments together with supporting mathematical and numerical modelling, field monitoring and observation. The outputs of these studies will feed into economic modelling work, leading to the production of a decision-support tool, for use by industry, to appraise the cost implications of using different track technologies in combination with specific external factors. The aims of this Programme Grant can only be achieved by combining a variety of skills and techniques. The research team therefore comprises world-leading engineers and scientists from different disciplines and universities, working together to apply their collective expertise. A well-defined organisational structure and adaptable methods of operation will together provide a high level of integration and synergy between the various research areas and activities; excellent communications between the researchers, institutions and industry partners; flexibility in the allocation and use of resources; agility and responsiveness in research direction; proactive management of risk; and ownership and early uptake of research results by industry.

The results of the Programme Grant will directly benefit railway infrastructure owners and operators, and will have an immediate impact on practising railway engineers involved in the design, maintenance and renewal of railway track. A radical improvement in the understanding and performance of contemporary track technologies will also have substantial benefits for a wide range of stakeholders in the railway industry (including, but not limited to, builders and maintainers of vehicles, train operating companies, consultants, and those defining policy frameworks governing railway operations, standards and research), for users of rail transport, for government and ultimately for the whole of society. Benefits to academia are described in the main Case for Support. Infrastructure owners and operators and practising railway engineers involved in the design, maintenance and renewal of railway track will benefit from advances in the fundamental understanding of the railway track system and track technologies that will inform strategies for optimising engineering (reduced deterioration rates and maintenance frequency), environmental (lower noise and vibration, more efficient use of resources) and economic (lower maintenance and whole-life costs) performance. The Programme will make a contribution to the reduction of the whole-life costs and environmental impacts of new railways in time to ensure maximum value from the substantial investment being proposed in new and refurbished rail infrastructure (e.g. HS2). Industry stakeholders will benefit through improved business efficiency, increased volume of business (less maintenance will contribute to an increase in capacity) and reduced costs. Government will benefit from the Programme's contribution to meeting the DfT's Rail Industry Research Strategy targets on Cost, Capacity, Carbon and Customers, contributing to the modal shift to rail needed to achieve the UK's commitment to reduced CO2 emissions from transport. Customers - the travelling public and freight users - will ultimately benefit from improved levels of service, reduced delays and reduced costs. The whole of society will gain from the environmental (carbon) benefits of the modal shift from road to rail that increased capacity and attractiveness of rail transport will bring, and from an improved understanding of whole life environmental costs. Results and details of research in progress will be widely disseminated and engagement with industry stakeholders will be ensured so that research results are implemented. The plans for this are described in the Impact Plan.