An overview of wheel–rail interface related research in the European project INNOTRACK including issues in technical and economical validation

Paper in proceeding, 2009

The INNOTRACK project (www.innotrack.eu) is a European research project within the 6th Framework Programme. The aim of the INNOTRACK project is to deliver innovative track-related solutions to reduce life cycle costs and improve the reliability, availability, maintainability and safety of the rail sector. The current paper gives an overview of work in INNOTRACK of relevance for the CM2009 conference. The work presented in this paper focuses on innovative processes and methodologies. Topics discussed concern rail selection, installation, inspection and maintenance and also the optimisation of switches and crossings. Finally a discussion on technical, logistical and economical verifications of proposed solutions is presented. Many of the topics included in this overview paper are presented in detail in other contributions to the CM2009 conference.