The Spanish company Acciona is developing a new slabtrack system within the project In2Track3. The new system will be tested in Sweden, on Malmbanan, in September this year.
The new slabtrack system, which is called 3MB slabtrack system, is soon ready to be tested. The demonstration site will be on 50 meter of the Malmbanan in the north of Sweden. Acciona in close cooperation with Trafikverket in Sweden will install the new slabtrack and from there make observations of how it functions.
– We have installed monitoring systems in the slabtrack such as embedded sensors, so we will be able to collect data and to analyze how the systems works, says Carlos Hermosilla Carrasco, who is part of the technical management team at Acciona.
The test has already been postponed two times so now the company is anxious to get it done.
– Of course there are always risks with testing new systems. But we have tested all the component designs to be able to resist to higher weight than it will tested on in real life in September, says Carlos Hermosilla Carrasco.
The company started working on the slabtrack system already in 2015, as part of the FP7 Capacity4Rail project, and have continued the development all through the 3 In2Track projects.
– Usually Infrastructure Managers are a bit reluctant to test new systems because no one wants to be the first, taking the risk. But within the project In2Track3 we have been able to embark Trafikverket to try it out, Carlos Hermosilla Carrasco says, which will be able to benefit the market in Europe.
– We will have first hand information about how the system works. And so we will be able to introduce it into the market, he says.
The big benefit with the new slab track system for the European railway system is that it would allow tracks with very little maintenance that can still be resurfaced easily when required, according to Carlos Hermosilla Carrasco. – It will be a very important change. It would facilitate for tracks being able to transport more, heavier and faster trains in Europe. So the big win for Europe is that the new and renewed tracks in this way would be more efficient, he says.