Is the railway a good neighbour?
Transport noise is one of the main sources of environmental noise. It is essential that our railways increase capacity to provide sustainable mobility; however, this brings with it a risk of increased rail-related noise and vibration emissions, as well as increased impact on local residents. Although the "quieter routes” concept of the revised TSI Noise will enter into force at the end of 2024, many railway noise and vibration issues remain unresolved: how will the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines and European Environment Agency (EEA) report on environmental noise inform noise policy? Will the issue of braking in winter conditions in Nordic countries be resolved? What is the current status of the bans on loud vehicles in Germany and Switzerland? What is the future of noise-differentiated track access charging? How is railway noise related to other environmental issues?
These are the types of questions that will be addressed at the first of the UIC Railway Noise Days, to be held on 23 February 2021. This workshop will take the form of a half-day webinar, and is being organised by the Noise and Vibration Sector.
The workshop will provide an update on the most important issues and developments in the field of railway noise, as well as an opportunity to discuss these with the relevant stakeholders. Participants will hear from speakers representing the European Commission (DG MOVE and DG ENV), CER, UIC and the EEA. In addition, UIC will present its latest state of the art report on railway noise in Europe.
Participants will have the opportunity to pose questions directly to these stakeholders and to discuss current issues.
On the second day, 24 February, The Train-Track Interaction Sector (TTI) within the UIC Rail System Department will conduct a half-day webinar.
Noise and vibration caused by the interaction between the train and the track remains an important issue for the railway sector as a whole. Furthermore, there is now greater insight into the effects of noise and vibration emissions on local residents and growing pressure on railway undertakings and infrastructure managers to keep reducing emission levels wherever feasible.
The TTI Sector has set out to address these concerns and provide roadmaps on this topic with a view to offering new solutions. The White Paper on Acoustics published in 2020 reflects the current situation and main issues and provides information on proposals for technical projects to conduct research and devise solutions for infrastructure managers and railway undertakings.
The field of acoustics presents significant challenges to global railway development. Efforts need to be made to support the proposals put forward in the White Paper in order to prepare operational and technical subsystems (comprising both infrastructure and rolling stock) for the new acoustics requirements in line with the European Commission’s existing vision for the future of the railways.
Webinar attendance is free of charge.
To register, please complete and submit the online form before 22 February 2021: https://uic.org/events/uic-railway-noise-days
Confirmation will be sent following registration. Participation may be limited if the number of registrations received exceeds the available capacity.
UIC is looking forward to seeing a large number of participants at the UIC Railway Noise Days in February.
