The author advocates Meter-Gauge for the upgraded rail-track on the trace of the Kelani-Valley Railway and long welded rails (LWR) on Y-shaped Steel-Sleepers with Pandrol Fast-Clips Rail-Fastening, providing several advantages over a Broad-Gauge track with concrete sleepers and Short Welded Rails (SWR). Less space is needed. Y steel-sleepers tolerate shallow ballast cushion and allow a tighter top-of-formation width. They make the track-grid resistant to the so-called “curve breathing” in curves without the need to heap up ballast shoulders as needed for concrete sleepers, and they retain the curve geometry parameters in an excellent way.

Y steel-sleepers are nowadays widely used especially on mountain railways and by railways with tight curvatures and narrow traces in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain and Germany. The live-span is longer than of concrete sleepers with less maintenance expenditures as demonstrated on a 160 kmph standard-gauge test-track between Cologne and Düsseldorf in Germany.

On elevated structure, as envisaged for the KV-line, Meter-Gauge and Y steel-sleepers  demand less space, and with less ballast-cushion there is less weight.

As Rolling Stocks the author advocates Light Weight Rail Cars of Swiss Stadler design with middle traction modules, nowadays used by many advanced railways around the globe.

Modern Light Weight Rail-Cars have higher acceleration and deceleration rates than conventional Power-Sets like the Srilankan Class S8, S9, S11 and S12 with heavy Diesel-engines in power cars, and they can faster negotiate tight curves.

Micro Cars Limited in Sri Lanka has made efforts to develop Rail Mass Transport Systems in Sri Lanka using Light Weight Rail-Car Concepts in order to design and manufacture in Sri Lanka Diesel engine powered Rail Cars under the “LANKA ECONO RAIL” Project. The author designed a Rail Car based on the technology of the Swizz Rail-Car Manufacturer Stadler with conventional “Diesel Power Packs” in middle Traction Unit. For Crash Worthiness, the author suggested for the Driver`s Cabins the Stadler Concepts fulfilling European Crash Norms.

For the rehabilitation of the ailing Balana-Incline Broad-Gauge rail-track with Y steel-sleepers and long welded rails, one can learn from the complete re-engineering of the Montserrat Railway in Spain, which underwent in 1991 renovation under trace broadening using concrete retaining walls.

The author suggests for a KV Mass Rapid Transit System the deployment of Communication Based Train Control System (CBTC) or European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 1.

To learn more, free download:CSRP, PART III, PDF

The Colombo Suburban Railway Project, CSRP, which is funded by Asian Development Bank, is aiming at electrification of the section from Veyangoda to Panadura (64 km) in the Colombo Suburban Area of Sri Lanka. This is a 600 Million USD project, under which the Railway-Tracks will be rehabilitated and reconstructed to increase the speed from 80 to 100 kmph, the Signalling and Telecommunication System in the section revamped, the Railway Stations upgraded, Multi-Modal Centers erected and finally electrification carried out.

Whereas Part I deals with the technologies and the difficulties of re-CSRP, PART II, PDFengineering the existing tracks to become sound, healthy and fit to cater a modern high capacity Urban and Suburban Rail Transport System, Part II deals with technical solutions for the KV-Line and the Main-Line from Colombo to Kandy, especially for the Balana Incline between Rambukkana and Katuganawa, that can be learned from other advanced railways.

In order to increase the geometry stability in the tight curvatures with troublesome and narrow top-formation of the KV-Line and the Balana Incline, the author suggest making use of Thyssen/Krupp Schulte GmbH Y-SHAPED STEEL-SLEEPERS with Pandrol Fast Clip rail-fastenings and long welded rails. This track system is used in Italy, Switzerland and Germany for mountain and hill railways with tight curves and steep ruling gradients. Y steel-sleepers are advantageous on shallow ballast beds and narrow top-of-formation width and allow long-welded rails in tight curves. In curves, those sleepers provide the rail-grid with excellent geometry stability.

 A conversion of the KV rail-track to METER GAUGE would provide many advantages, especially higher speed in tight curvatures on narrow formation. METRE GAUGE CONVERSION should be possible, since the KV ends at Maradana/Fort and carries no long-distance trains proceeding on other broad-gauge lines.

As ROLLING STOCKS the author suggests to make use of modern Light Weight Rail Cars of Swiss Stadler technology propelled by Diesel-electric power packs rating 2 x 800 KW in a middle traction van/module with a free gangway for the commuters, as the author has designed and envisaged for the LANKA ECONO RAIL PROJECT, initiated by L. Perera of Micro Cars. Those Rail-Cars with middle traction run in Lithuania, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Greece.

To learn more download:CSRP, PART II, PDF

In Sri Lanka, the majority of passenger transport is by road.

 The ambitious Colombo Suburban Railway Project (CSRP) aims to increase the share of rail transport from the current 5% to 10%. The success of the project will depend on whether it will be possible to bring the dilapidated railway-tracks up to the latest standards. The substructure of the rail-tracks is still at the level of the turn from the 19th century to the 20th century.

 The upgrading of the railway-tracks will become the most difficult task within the program. The paper deals with the current affairs, the role of the bearing substructure/formation and drainage, and it points out the tasks/difficulties of strengthening, re-engineering, revamping and upgrading the poor quality rail-tracks.

To read more download: CSRP AN AMBITIOUS PROJECT, PART I

The Railway-Tracks of Srilankan Railways are a shining teaching sample that a long-lasting well aligned rail-track, matching the traffic load it has to carry, is not possible without a well drained and well bearing Formation, a thick Formation Protective Layer (FPL, “Blanket” or “Sub-Ballast”) and a proper and clean Ballast-Bed. The memory for the track misalignments in Sri Lanka is mostly buried in the poor bearing and badly drained or even missing formation. The biggest obstacle for the Colombo Suburban Railway Project, to make the track fit for faster and more frequent commuter service, are not the current 90 pound rails but the poor bearing, yielding, poor drained and unstable formations, or even the missing formation, and the improper and poor ballasting. Envisaged long-welded UIC 60 rails alone will not do the job; see: COLOMBO BACKS RAIL TO TACKLE CONGESTIONS by Keith Barrow, in International Railway Journal, August 2018, page 30.

If there is nearly no ballast or only marginal ballast and hence the Load Distribution not sufficient, the concrete sleeper will “dance” under dynamic traffic load, hammer the few ballast stones into the formation, formation material will prop up, and the marginal ballast stones get either crushed to dust or submerge in the formation. Overloading of formation due to missing ballast and missing formation protective layer cause soil to penetrate into ballast vice versa. Formation material and ballast are mixing. This happens all over insufficient ballasted SLR Tracks.

Envisaged electrification will not bring alleviation for the current low route capacity and low train speed, if not the rail-tracks from Kalutara up to Negombo and Rambukkana will face comprehensive formation re-engineering, rehabilitation and strengthening, as well proper ballasting. The current poor quality rail-tracks need constant and costly maintenance and repair – “nearly as every train goes” = former GMR Mr. Priyal De Silva – .

To read more, download: BALLAST and FORMATION, revised 3, PDF

Indian Railways are suffering from a historic under-investment in rail-track assets and from a rail-track neglect of far reaching history.

India has the ambitious plan to bring its Railway System on World Class Standards. A World Class Standard Rail-Service needs World Class high Quality Infrastructure, Assets, and Rail-Tracks as well World Class best Practice in Track Maintenance; best under the regime of one infrastructure provider. How to achieve this, IR can learn from advanced Central European Railways.

Advanced Central European Railways have their distinguished rail-track service- and infrastructure-providers/operators/enterprises/companies/agencies.

Latter are governmental subsidiaries/companies responsible and in charge of the entire infrastructure and assets (rail-tracks, signalling, tunnels, bridges, stations). They own the infrastructure and provide state-to-the-art railway technology when building, constructing, maintaining and operating the entire infrastructure under one umbrella. Leading are:

• ÖBB (Austria); ÖBB INFRASTRUKTUR AG – a governmental company, which plans, develops, maintains and operates the entire ÖBB infrastructure and provides state-to-the-art railway technology as a service to the nation.
• SBB-CFF-FFS (Switzerland); SBB-CFF-CFF INFRASTRUKTUR,
• DB (Germany), DB NETZ AG and
• British Rail (UK); NETWORK RAIL Infrastructure Ltd. (UK), who owns and operates the railway infrastructure in England, Wales and Scotland on behalf of the nation.

Those governmental subsidiaries have their own management structure, their own budged and long-term Funding Agreements with their Governments, ensuring infrastructure management planning far ahead, which take into account the actual condition of the network. They generate value through engineering as a service for rail transport in their countries.

Basis for planning are Status-Reports or Audits on the condition/status of the countries’ full network with regard to their assets-behaviour in order to provide correlations with output quantities and the required financial recourses for re-investment in assets and infrastructures, and as well for maintenance-strategies and planning’s.

In Central European Railways, infrastructure management strategies are governed by Life Cycle Cost (LCC) considerations in order to minimize overall costs over the asset-life span. Guidelines for Infrastructure Management and  best Practice in Track Maintenance are summarised in the new edited book of Florian Auer, INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT, 2018 PMC Media House GmbH, ISBN: 978-3-96245.155-4, Bingen, Germany.

In his new book, Dr. Florian Auer points out:

“Needs-based and reliable rail infrastructure requires all processes associated with the sustainable preservation of the condition of the existing network to be considered and structurally planned over a period of several years. Continually updated multi-year plans assist in making efficient use of scarce financial resources.

The permanent way is a natural monopoly, also in the eyes of the European Union. Only if there is the will to provide the necessary financial resources, it will be possible to ensure the required long-term quality. The study by Boston Consulting Group on the Railway Performance Index 2015 demonstrated that countries focusing on the consistent expansion and upkeep of their railway infrastructure achieve a higher added value.

The analysis methods used increasingly in recent years, e.g. LCC (Life Cycle Costs), RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety) or the production of life cycle assessments, allow infrastructure managers to take “the right measure at the right time” in a holistic and transparent manner. Progress in digitalisation offers a huge development potential in this area”.

 The Technical University at Graz, Austria, is worldwide the forerunner in pushing up track quality under overall LCC considerations.

As the rail infrastructure companies move away from reactive to proactive based maintenance regimes, this will ultimately enable faster identification of track faults, quicker diagnosis and increased safety and performance. And, with a wide range of innovative new technologies for condition monitoring and analysis of track performance data (Data Science) emerging, there are further opportunities for driving down maintenance costs even more, and more effectively managing the impact of track maintenance on the running of train services.

Digitalisation will be the enabler of massive developments to improve efficiency and reliability whilst helping to reduce costs.

However, key strategic, technical and operational challenges need to be overcome in order to integrate these new technologies effectively into existing maintenance regimes and to improve maintenance operations.

Central European Railways, Railways in Russia, Australia and Hong Kong use monitoring instruments mounted on schedules running commercial trains (so-called Instrumented Revenue Vehicles, IRV), for train-based and in-service track-condition monitoring in target planning of maintenance.

Rehabilitations are carried out under planning methodology according  Building Information Technology (BIM) by  creating a complete digitalised Virtual Track through laser-scanning, geo-radar, 3D mapping, videoing and  photo-documentation,  provided for use to all parties involved.

In India, infrastructure management and maintenance regime are split up within too many authorities, responsibilities, advisory boards, subsidiaries and providers. Strategic planning and work execution under one umbrella is not given. In this respect, IR seems to be non reformable. Infrastructure management and maintenance regime from one hand, the prerequisite to manage a modern state-of-the-art World Class Railway, is lacking in India. It is questionable, if in the near future India will succeed to make the necessary structural reforms to reach the goal of its “Mission Mode Plan” with the aim to develop its Railway according World Class Standards.

To read more, download: LEARNING ABOUT MODERN INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT AND BEST PRACTICE IN TRACK MAINTENANCE, PDF

The Newton`s Laws Mechanic is useful to analyse mutual track-vehicle/wheel-rail interactions and to determine track irregularities and track defects by vehicle mounted instruments: Accelerometer Sensors and Gyroscope Devices for Rotation Measurements. This means, by measuring accelerations and rotations through instruments on board of commercial and scheduled running rail-vehicles, the cause in form of track irregularities can be determined. And by continuous track monitoring with repeated runs over the same track, the development of track-defects and track-irregularities, the development over the time of such defects and irregularities, in other words, the Track-Deterioration Rates or Velocity of Deterioration, can be measured, and the threshold for necessary interaction by repair, maintenance or renewal can be forecasted.

Automatic in-service track-condition monitoring through Instrumented scheduled running commercial Revenue Rail-Vehicles (IRV), making use of NEWTON`S LAWS OF MECHANICS, drive track maintenance efficiency.

Continuous monitoring collects up-to-date dynamic responses, which together with historical data can assist in predicting future deterioration for each section of track (= predictive condition monitoring). Based on the IRV feedback, scheduled maintenance activities can be prioritized at locations exhibiting rapid deterioration.

To read more about the deployment of scheduled running, commercial and revenue trains as diagnostic vehicles for track-condition monitoring, download:INSTRUMENTED REVENUE VEHICLE TRACK-CONDITION MONITORING_ PDF

QUOTATIONS:

“MODERN RAIL-TRACK TECHNOLOGY HELPS TO CUT LIFE CYCLE COSTS”;

“A TRACK IS ONLY AS GOOD AS WHAT IS UNDERNEATH”;

“A TRACK IS ONLY AS GOOD AS ITS WEAKEST SPOT, BECAUSE A TRAIN MIGHT DERAIL ON SUCH A SPOT”;

“WITHOUT PROPER WELL BEARING AND WELL DRAINED SUB-STRUCTURE (SUBSOIL, SUB-GRADE, FORMATION AND BLANKET) NO STABLE RAIL-ROAD”;

“THE LONGEVITY DEPENDS ON DRAINAGE AND IF THE WATER CAN BE TAKEN OUT AND KEPT AWAY FROM THE TRACK-BED”;

“WATER IS THE ENEMY OF THE RAIL-TRACK”;

“CLEAN AND UNFOLDED BALLAST IS THE BLOOD OF THE RAIL- TRACK”;

“THE GEOMETRICAL PERFECT PRODUCTION OF WELDED RAIL- JOINTS AND THE CORRECT ALIGNMENT OF THE RAILS ARE ESSENTIAL PARAMETERS FOR THE DURABILITY OF WELDED JOINTS”;

”TRACK QUALITY IS NO LUXURY”;

”A LOWER QUALITY TRACK DETERIORATES FASTER THAN A HIGHER QUALITY TRACK AND IS THEREFORE BY FAR MORE COSTLY TO MAINTAIN”;

“A POOR QUALITY TRACK NEEDS MAINTENANCE NEARLY AS EVERY TRAIN GOES”;

“ONE HAS TO MANAGE AND OPTIMIZE EFFECTIVELY THE ALL-IMPORTANT WHEEL – RAIL SYSTEM”;

“WITHOUT SOUND AND HEALTHY RAIL-TRACKS OF HIGH QUALITY, MATCHING THE TRAFFIC-LOAD/VOLUME/SPEED, MODERN RAILWAY SERVICE WITH CLOSE-TO-ZERO MORTALITY RATE IS NOT POSSIBLE!!!”

To read more download the Technical Paper:FUNDAMENTALS OF RAIL-TRACK ENGINEERING_ QUOTATIONS