In July 2010, the European Commission demanded the elaboration of an agenda for research and technology in the transport sector. EC believes that this agenda should be developed in collaboration with all the players interested so that the real needs of the transport sector can be better understood and, therefore, the EU funding can be put to better use. The priorities are represented by the projects related to low-carbon transport, safety and security, traffic management and administrative task reduction.
A similar project that focuses on freight transport support and sustainability, SUSTRAIL, was presented during the WBSA Railway Summit – “Towards an efficiency railway sector in the Wider Black Sea Area”, by Ioan Buciuman, Executive Director of the Romanian Railway Authority (AFER). SUSTRAIL is based on a partnership and its main coordinator is Consorzio TRAIN (Italy) – Consortium for the research and development of innovative technologies for transport. The cost of the entire project amounts to EUR 3 Million and the main financing source is FP7. The countries that participate in this project are: Italy, UK, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Sweden, Spain, Norway and Russia.
Focus on interoperability
SUSTRAIL was initiated this year and will continue in the next three years. The project is divided into 6 sub-projects. “The purpose of this research is to improve the sustainability and competitiveness of railway freight transport by reducing maintenance and costs, hence facilitating traffic increase and becoming more open to new market opportunities”, said Ioan Buciuman. Sub-project 1 stipulates that it is necessary to identify the current situation in order to compare the activities which include a correlation between the damage level on the tracks and the design parameters of the vehicles for two or more examples of routes in the European Community. To that end, 3-4 rail freight transport routes will be selected in order to elaborate a case study. Sub-project 1 also includes the examination of the vehicles and track parameters (profiles, load, suspension), as well as the track-wheel wear, traffic frequency, maintenance regime and local conditions (climate, geography) and the relative impact. Sub-project 2 focuses on an analysis of the requirements related to customs taxes for the current and future rail freight transport. The objective of Sub-project 3 is to identify the way in which the vehicles, as sub-systems, can help reduce costs, reduce environmental impact and improve efficiency and sustainability. As part of this sub-project, the braking systems will be subjected to an in-depth analysis and evaluation in order to determine the impact on the total mass of the system and the total mass of the vehicle. Sub-project 4 includes the use of the most competent knowledge related to track and material optimization as sources of construction for the INNOTRACK production and other projects, in order to double the lifecycle of track components and reduce the impact on vehicles. This sub-project will be used to design prototypes for rack infrastructure which in the future will be used as entry data in sub-project 2. Sub-project 5 will handle the recommendations for the implementation of the entire system and also include this strategy for the fair redistribution of the entire economic system. Sub-project 6 will serve as a practical demonstration by testing the viability of the most promising technologies created through this project on a pre-established route. It will also serve to demonstrate the improvement of the characteristics bogie/suspension along the running rail and the optimization of the geometry and components which will be proven through SUSTRAIL validation in vehicle/track system. “When comparing with Sub-project 1, the demonstrations will determine a reduction in maintenance costs as a consequence of the major potential improvement in the rehabilitated system”, said Ioan Buciuman. AFER will cooperate with the partners in charge of sub-projects 6, 3 and 4 in order to establish the general conditions of the demonstrations, as well as the testing plan (number, timeframe, parameters), equipment used for measuring and testing, safety and security requirements. The project coordination group will identify close partners in order to create a consortium that can optimize the project and therefore facilitate the proper distribution of the project. The group will determine the practical application of the solutions resulted and will identify the proper exploitation of the results by applying the solutions developed and tested throughout the project.
by Elena Ilie
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