SustRail
Sponsors: EU, FP7 (Seventh Framework Programme)
Researchers: Matti Rantatalo, Matthias Asplund & Uday Kumar
Duration: 2011 – 2014
SUSTRAIL aims to contribute to the rail freight system to allow it to regain position and market and the proposed solution is based on a combined improvement in both freight vehicle and track components in a holistic approach aimed at achieving a higher reliability and increased performance of the rail freight system as a whole and profitability for all the stakeholders. The SUSTRAIL integrated approach is based on innovations in rolling stock and freight vehicles (with a targeted increased in speed and axle-load) combined with innovations in the track components (for higher reliability and reduced maintenance), whose benefits to freight and passenger users (since mixed routes are considered) are quantified through the development of an appropriate business case with estimation of cost savings
on a life cycle basis.
JVTC/Division of Operation andMaintenance is involved in two work packages in the European 7:th framework research project Sustrail. WP4: Sustainable track and WP5: Business case.
WP4: SUSTAINABLE TRACK
This work package will facilitate the need for the railway infrastructure to accommodate more traffic whilst at the same time reducing deterioration of track and wheels through increasing the resistance of the track to the loads imposed on it by vehicles. This will assist in sustainable achievement of increased speed and capacity for freight traffic, thus contributing towards making rail freight more competitive. There is a very strong coupling to WP3 since
it is essential to undertake a systems approach to analyse the combined track and vehicle loads and deterioration.
The outputs from the WP will also inform the decision making for WP5 that will select the most promising infrastructure technologies for testing and demonstration.
WP5: BUSINESS CASE
This work package considers the business case and implementation issues associated with the vehicle and track options developed in WP3 and WP4 respectively. The work package will act as both an iterative filter for the options developed in WP3 and WP4 in order to help focus the engineering development to those options which are likely to have greatest overall net benefits, as well as providing a final business case appraisal for the preferred option. The assessment will include quantifying the Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of each option and a Reliability, Availability, Maintenance and Safety (RAMS) analysis
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