Railway Track for the 21st Century

世界上大多数铁路-包括英国的所有主要线路-目前都在有碴轨道上。虽然组件规格和材料有了发展，但系统的原理在过去150年中几乎没有变化。有碴轨道通常被认为在施工成本、刚度和排水性能以及易于修改方面提供了最佳解决方案：因此，尽管已经使用了更高工程设计的轨道形式，（例如，在日本、德国和中国），有碴轨道已用于英国西海岸干线等升级和包括HS 1（英国）在内的新高速线路，TGV（法国）和AVE（西班牙）。然而，随着对有碴轨道的需求的增加，目前建造的有碴轨道的局限性变得更加明显和显著。这导致了比预期更高的维修要求和成本，并表明，如果要实现政府降低成本和增加铁路运输能力的愿望，就必须改变轨道性能-通过对现有有碴轨道的改造措施，或在大规模更新的情况下，通过明智的决定，支持替代轨道系统。该计划赠款将通过开发设计、施工和维护的新技术，逐步改善铁路轨道的工程、经济和环境性能，使其适合21世纪的铁路。通过更好地了解轨道部件的行为、它们之间的相互作用以及它们对外部载荷和环境条件的响应，可以显著提高铁路轨道的性能。提高认识将有助于制定更有效和更高效的维护和更新战略，从而降低成本、增加能力和提高可靠性。该计划拨款亦将使现时的铁路轨道设计得以彻底翻新，以配合新建（例如HS 2）及升级工程，从而比现时更有效率地满足现时及未来的列车装载需求。要应付这些挑战，就需要有一个协调一致的研究方案，以调查轨道系统各组成部分之间的相互关系以及与外部因素之间的关系。这将涉及一系列相互关联的实验，以及支持数学和数字建模、实地监测和观察。这些研究的结果将纳入经济建模工作，从而产生一个决策支持工具，供工业界使用，以评估结合具体外部因素使用不同轨道技术所涉费用。这项计划补助金的目的只能通过结合各种技能和技术来实现。因此，研究团队由来自不同学科和大学的世界领先的工程师和科学家组成，共同努力，运用他们的集体专业知识。一个明确的组织结构和适应性强的运作方法将共同提供各种研究领域和活动之间的高度整合和协同作用;研究人员，机构和行业合作伙伴之间的良好沟通;资源分配和使用的灵活性;研究方向的灵活性和反应能力;积极主动的风险管理;以及行业对研究成果的所有权和早期吸收。

The majority of the world's railways - including all main lines in the UK - are currently on ballasted track. Although there have been developments in component specifications and materials, the principles of the system have changed little over the past 150 years. Ballasted track has generally been considered to offer the optimum solution in terms of construction cost, stiffness and drainage properties, and ease of modification: thus although more highly engineered track forms have been used (e.g. in Japan, Germany and China), ballasted track has been employed both for upgrades such as the UK West Coast Main Line and for new high speed lines including HS1 (UK), TGV (France) and AVE (Spain). However, the limitations of ballasted track as currently constructed are becoming more apparent and more significant as the demands placed upon it have increased. This has led to higher than expected maintenance requirements and costs, and demonstrates that a transformation in track performance - by retro-fit measures for existing ballasted track, or by an informed decision in favour of an alternative track system in the case of large-scale renewals - is essential if the Government's aspirations of reduced cost and increased capacity for rail transport are to be realised. This Programme Grant will 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. By obtaining a better understanding of the behaviour of track components, the interactions between them and their response to external loading and environmental conditions, the performance of railway track can be significantly enhanced. Improved understanding will allow the development of more effective and efficient maintenance and renewal strategies, leading in turn to reduced costs, increased capacity and improved reliability. The Programme Grant will also enable a radical overhaul of current railway track design appropriate for both new build (e.g. HS2) and upgrades to meet current and future train loading requirements more efficiently than is at present possible. Meeting these challenges will require a coordinated programme of research to investigate how the various components of the track system relate to each other and to external factors. This will involve a series of inter-related experiments together with supporting mathematical and numerical modelling, field monitoring and observation. The outputs of these studies will feed into economic modelling work, leading to the production of a decision-support tool, for use by industry, to appraise the cost implications of using different track technologies in combination with specific external factors. The aims of this Programme Grant can only be achieved by combining a variety of skills and techniques. The research team therefore comprises world-leading engineers and scientists from different disciplines and universities, working together to apply their collective expertise. A well-defined organisational structure and adaptable methods of operation will together provide a high level of integration and synergy between the various research areas and activities; excellent communications between the researchers, institutions and industry partners; flexibility in the allocation and use of resources; agility and responsiveness in research direction; proactive management of risk; and ownership and early uptake of research results by industry.