TRACK21: Railway Track for the 21st Century (Workpackage 6)

It is widely acknowledged that a transformation in railway track performance is essential if the UK Government’s aspirations of reduced cost and increased capacity on the rail network are to be realised.

This Programme Grant aimed to 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.

Research in the project has been enhanced by support from external stakeholders, notably Network Rail, who have provided access to software including Track-Ex and the Vehicle-Track Interface Strategic Model (VTISM). Industry stakeholders have also made a range of datasets available for use in the project, such as GEOGIS and ACTRAFF. TRG’s work has focused on using these tools to model the whole life cost and carbon impacts of a range of alternative sleeper and ballast systems tested in other areas of the Track21 project. Reviews of previous work on whole life cost and carbon modelling for a range of factors relating to railway track systems have also been produced. In particular, a detailed assessment of Under sleeper Pads (USPs) has indicated that there may be wider benefits related to reduced vibration and improvements in ride quality.

The Track21 legacy website is here: www.track21.org.uk