Rail Cargo Hungaria is investing 1.5 billion Hungarian forints to retrofit its freight wagons with whisper brakes. This noise-reducing measure will significantly reduce noise emissions in Hungary.

By December 2020, a total of 1,300 vehicles in the existing RCH fleet had been equipped with quiet brake pads and a further 700 freight wagons with the new technology ordered. This will enable the Hungarian rail freight company to continue to handle all transport shipments in and through Germany – which introduced a nationwide ban on loud brakes in December 2020.

The project to retrofit around 11,000 RCA and RCH wagons is being supported with funds from the Connecting Europe Facility, the European fund for the promotion of sustainable development in the transport sector, amounting to almost 3.3 million euro. In order to convert the entire Rail Cargo Hungaria fleet, the company will invest a further 4.3 million euro from its own funds in the coming years, which will enable all 6,300 wagons to be completely retrofitted by the end of 2023.

Quiet brakes in rail freight transport

This newly introduced quiet braking technology prevents wheel treads from being roughened up, thus reducing sound pressure levels by up to 10dBA. This equates to halving the noise to the human ear. Thanks to this development, noise emissions in the fleet’s sphere of operation, Hungary in particular, will be reduced significantly and noise pollution levels will be improved for tens of thousands of people living near the Hungarian railway network. Rail Cargo Hungaria, which is responsible for more than half of Hungary’s rail freight transport, is setting further standards in the field of sustainable European freight logistics.

(Source: Rail Cargo Group)