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Innovative Track Systems

Objective

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 and triple freight traffic by 2020 -Reduce LCC by 30% The Railway Business Scenario 2020 also calls for railways to capture 15% of freight and 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
-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
- Draw together common European specifications regarding Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS) combined with LCC
- Provide innovative solutions to reduce failure rates and decrease LCC of material, equipment, machinery and systems Finally, InnoTrack will assure a wide dissemination through UIC and UNIFE, 2 organisations representing IMs and industry.

Fields of science

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

FP6-2005-TRANSPORT-4
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

IP - Integrated Project

Coordinator

UNION INTERNATIONALE DES CHEMINS DE FER
Address
16, rue jean rey
Paris
France

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EU contribution
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Participants (36)

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Last update: 3 September 2022

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/31415

European Union, 2023