Current Industry Priorities and Drivers

Question 1

What is the Rail Technical Strategy in terms of Infrastructure, Rolling Stock, Energy and Customer Experience?

Answer 1

Long term goals presented as targets for 2040, medium term goals by 2019

1. Infrastructure: Trains and track equipment monitor each other, damage is reduced and detected early. The railway is carbon-neutral and resilient to the impact of climate change.
2. Rolling stock: Reliable, energy-efficient, low whole-life cost rolling stock. Rolling stock to infrastructure interfaces are optimised to minimise costs. More efficient braking systems and bogie designs are deployed.
3. Energy: Extensively electrified network to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and non-renewable resources. Trains capable of on-board energy storage (e.g. flywheels, super-capacitors, batteries)
4. Customer experience: Increased reliability. Passenger-friendly stations without queues or physical barriers – electronic ticketing. Improved design of stations, vehicles and infrastructure to reduce crime and security risks

Question 2

What are the 4Cs of the strategic industry priorities?

Answer 2

1. Carbon: Climate change, Energy Supply
2. Capacity: How to get more people/things through the network
3. Cost: How to keep costs under control, reduce government support
4. Customers: Giving people a better experience of using the railway

Question 3

What percentage of UK’s total emissions are trains responsible for?

Answer 3

Rail emissions are only 0.5% of UK total CO2 Emissions.

Question 4

What is the aim of the industry regarding carbon emissions?

Answer 4

Aim: Halve CO2 output by 2038, value to industry of £0.25bn/year

Question 5

What is the aim of the industry in terms of its capacity?

Answer 5

Aim – double capacity by 2038, value to industry £7.5bn/year

Question 6

How can crowding be reduced, when train lengths and frequencies are limited?

Answer 6

1. Better design of train interiors

2. Technologies to reduce the ‘headway’ between trains

Question 7

What is the aim of the industry in terms of its costs?

Answer 7

Aim: Halve the unit cost of running the railway by 2038

Value to industry of £10.8bn/year

Question 8

What is the aim of the industry in terms of its customers?

Answer 8

Aim: Shift customer satisfaction from 90% (2009) to 99% (2038)

Value to industry £0.1bn/year

Question 9

What are the social drivers of change in the rail industry?

Answer 9

Acing population

The older age profile of the population has two effects:
1. Public: More rails and handles needed in vehicles, better access required, less able to deal with crushed conditions

2. Staff: Fewer people available & willing to work in heavy manual track maintenance.

Question 10

The older age profile of the population has two effects:

Answer 10

1. Public: More rails and handles needed in vehicles, better access required, less able to deal with crushed conditions
2. Staff: Fewer people available & willing to work in heavy manual track maintenance.

Question 11

What could be a solution to continue maintaining tracks without the need for increased staff?

Answer 11

Some solutions: Robotics and autonomous systems to replace or assist people in the “4Ds” Dangerous, Difficult, Dirty and Dull

Arup: smart crawling robots can already test load-bearing cables
and tethers of bridges. Future: swarm robotics with small robots
collaborating e.g. mining, weather sensing, infrastructure repair

Question 12

Why is inspection of overhead lines needed?

Answer 12

1. Overhead lines are contacted by the train pantograph to pick-up electric power
2. Overhead wires can suffer wear, joins can fail, corrosion and fatigue can occur
3. Inspection + prediction of line life and failure modes is needed

Question 13

What are the benefits of modelling overhead lines?

Answer 13

1. Predictable renewal, rather than
   responding to wire failures
2. Better specification of new equipment

Question 14

What do high contacts stresses at the wheel-rail interface cause?

Answer 14

High contact stresses at the wheel rail interface can cause metal fatigue which can lead to cracks and rail breaks.

Question 15

What technique is used to assess rail damage?

Answer 15

Measurement of surface crack length is used to assess damage – ultrasound and eddy current inspection

Question 16

Can we continue using the rail even further id we find early stages of damage?

Answer 16

If early stages of damage are found the rail can be ground down to remove the cracks and extend the life of the rail.

Question 17

What happens if early stages of damage are missed?

Answer 17

If early stages of the damage are missed a site can unexpectedly need immediately severe grinding or rail replacement.

Question 18

What happens usually in autumn on the rail tracks?

Answer 18

A hard, thin contaminant layer of leaf and other constituents, difficult to remove, can be rapidly formed on the railhead by just a few trains.

Question 19

The main effects of railhead leaf contamination are:

Answer 19

1. An increased safety risk in braking (increased stopping distances)
2. Safety risk from failure of track circuits to detect trains
3. A reduction in performance through wheel slip or spin, which causes an increase in delay minutes and wheel damage

Question 20

How do we fight leaf contamination on the rails?

Answer 20

A. Physical solutions: water-jetting

1. Over 100MPa water jet directly onto the railhead
2. Cleans the rail of debris
3. This system is effective at speeds up to 40 mph

B. Chemical solutions: Removing the leaf layer by disrupting the chemistry of its bond to the rail

1. ‘Cirtaclean’ changes pH of the railhead to disrupt existing leaf film, and to help prevent re-formation

Question 21

What are the usual rail-wheel contact friction coefficients?

Answer 21

0.1-0.5

Question 22

How long can wheels last?

Answer 22

up to 20 years based on wear alone

Question 23

What damages are the wheels subject to?

Answer 23

wheel slide, fatigue and other problems

Question 24

What can drastically reduce wheel life?

Answer 24

Wheels are regularly re- profiling by turning on a wheel lathe, which can drastically reduce the expected life.

Question 25

Why do we need to lubricate the rail curves?

Answer 25

Rail curve lubrication reduces wear at the wheel-rail interface, extending rail and wheel life and reducing costs. Network Rail’s track- based rail curve lubrication has not been fully effective

Question 26

Network Rail’s track- based rail curve lubrication has not been fully effective. How can we solve this?

Answer 26

• Application of tribological knowledge
• (1) Develop a standard specification for curve lubricants
• (2) Develop enhanced guidance for installation, inspection and maintenance of trackside curve lubricators
• (3) Develop an improved Network Rail rail lubricator training course

Question 27

What are the benefits of lubricating the curves?

Answer 27

1. A reduction in rail renewal volumes on sub-1000m radius curves due to rail wear
2. A reduction in switch & crossing (points) ironwork renewal volumes due to rail wear.
3. A reduction in wheel wear claims from Train Operating Companies