CARGOVIBES

Description:

As pointed out in the White paper for European transport the aim of the European rail operators is to increase the market share of goods traffic from 8 % in 2001 to 15 % in 2020. The nightly time slots will play an important in this. Railway vibration annoyance and sleep disturbance in residential areas is a potential show stopper for this increase. Therefore the aim of Cargovibes is to develop and assess measures to ensure acceptable levels of vibration for residents living in the vicinity of freight railway lines in order to facilitate the extension of freight traffic on rail. Existing evaluation criteria in use are deemed too strict and not based on relevant surveys. There are no uniform assessment methods available and knowledge about mitigation measures is fractured and hardly common.

In this proposal the right criteria will be established, given the characteristics of freight traffic. Existing mitigation measures for conventional railway are not directly applicable to freight trains which generate a different soil vibration pattern than conventional railways in terms of vibration amplitudes and frequency contents. Viable efficient new mitigation measures for freight rail traffic will be designed and validated.

In operational terms the project aims at developing:
a) Criteria for the evaluation of the adverse effects. These criteria will be formulated as extensions of current guidelines.
b) A protocol for the assessment of the effect of mitigation measures.
c) Three new mitigation measures: a measure for the rolling stock, one for the track and one in the propagation path. These measures will be pilot tested and validated in service.
d) Catalogue of mitigation measures, for use of railway community.

To ensure that the project will generate products that can readily put to use, a Board of End Users will be put into place which will judge intermediate results and guide the developments in the course of the project.