CROSS-T and AERO NOISE kick-off meetings held in February 2020 at UIC Paris

Share this article

The UIC Train-Track Interaction (TTI) Sector, within the Rail System Department, has recently launched two new projects in February 2020.

The TTI sector is at the cross point of the rolling stock, track and structure sectors. Its main mission is to study the vehicle/infrastructure interaction with a system approach, working in close collaboration with the Energy, Environment and Sustainability (EES) platform and with the Passenger and Freight forums.

The activities of the TTI Sector aim to improve the operational, economic and environmental efficiency of the railway system, improve interoperability and ensure the safety of the railway system.

The kick-off meeting for the CROSS-T project was held at UIC HQ on 12 February 2020.

This project aims to:

Manage safe train crossings in mixed traffic
Reinforce the development of the TEN-T network and RFC (Rail Freight Corridors)
Provide the needed cross-border cooperation

Several IMs and RUs have identified cases whereby crossings of high-speed or freight trains are not entirely covered by the European standards. A lack of detail regarding the track sections dedicated to both open-air and tunnel crossings of trains have been detected.

In addition, there are no direct values regarding the pressures exerted by the high-speed rolling stock on crossing freight trains. Requirements for freight rolling stock do not consider methods to assess and to evaluate these pressures.

Participating members are ADIF / DB / EUSKOTREN / LFP / RFI / RSSB, and the duration of the project is 30 months.

The kick-off meeting for the AERO NOISE project was held at UIC HQ on 26 February 2020.

The aim of the project is to create new standardised measurement and analysis systems to characterise the aerodynamic noise of high-speed trains by covering gaps in standards which currently do not allow to separate evaluation and to apportion the noise coming from different sources.

Passing high-speed trains produce annoying noise. When speed increasing aerodynamic noise becomes dominant, and is mostly produced by the upper part of trains such as the pantograph/catenary contact or pantograph itself. With the deployment of high-speed trains, the need for better control of the aerodynamic noise sources has emerged.

Participating members are ADIF / HS2 / SNCF / SŽ / TRAFIKVERKET, and the duration of the project is 30 months.

For both projects, it is anticipated that the project objectives will be realised through a combination of technical meetings and discussions, desktop studies, train dynamic simulations and full-scale tests, comparison of assessment methods, computer calculations; analysis of mitigation measures, dissemination of project outputs and promotion of best practice.

The outputs will be taken forward as technical reports and guidelines, workshops, and two specific IRS on: