RAIL.ONE provides standard and specialised concrete sleepers, including ballastless track systems such as the top railway products RHEDA 2000® and GETRAC®. The monolithic, ballastless RHEDA 2000 system on concrete is used for mainline tracks, especially on high speed routes. The GETRAC system has proven successful as ballastless solution on asphalt. Since 2004, it has official German approval for high speed applications as well. The RHEDA 2000 system will be installed in the City tunnel in Leipzig while the GETRAC technology has been chosen for the Schlüchtern tunnel. Visit www.ballastlesstrack.com, www.pfleiderer-track.com and www.railone.com
Leipzig City tunnel
The RHEDA 2000 ballastless track system of RAIL.ONE will be installed in the City tunnel in Leipzig - currently the prime transportation project in central Germany. Over a distance of approximately 4 km, the entire track in the tunnel will be equipped with this patented ballastless technology, including the mass-spring system. The beginning of deliveries is scheduled for 2009 or 2010. The north-south rail line, which serves all heavy-rail suburban passenger lines (S-Bahn) in Leipzig, is scheduled to go into operation in 2011.
This new project success highlights the leading role played by RAIL.ONE in ballastless track technology. Beginning early with the high speed line from Cologne to the Frankfurt airport, RAIL.ONE delivered over 180,000 patented special sleepers for this project. Subsequent major projects - such as the high speed line from Nuremberg to Ingolstadt, the Berlin north-south link, the Dutch high speed line from Amsterdam to Brussels, as well as the Taiwan high speed rail project - were all implemented with RHEDA 2000 systems. In addition, the RAIL.ONE Group currently uses its ballastless track technology in projects in Spain (Guadarrama tunnel), South Korea and China.
The RHEDA 2000 is a monolithic ballastless track system for mainline and high speed applications. It is characterised by a design without longitudinal concrete upstands at the edges of the TSL, as well as its use of a modified bi-block concrete sleeper with lattice-truss reinforcement. As a result of the monolithic structural design of the concrete track-supporting layer, and owing to the low track structural height, the system is especially well suited for tracks at grade, and for applications with turnouts, in tunnels and on bridges.
In areas sensitive to vibrations, the RHEDA 2000 can be executed with a spring-mass system. As a result of the mass of the concrete track system, supported as it is on elastic damper elements, vibrations acting on the surroundings are eliminated or reduced. An additional system solution is the new ballastless track system without continuous reinforcement. In structural design and functional principle, this variation represents the state-of-the-art in transportation infrastructure but, unlike the standard RHEDA 2000 system, it has no continuous reinforcement.
Construction of the City tunnel has been long hoped for in Leipzig to provide the north-south connection between the main rail station and the Bavarian station. The S-Bahn commuter lines and the regional express trains will in future pass through the city centre underground. The central piece of the S-Bahn network inLeipzig and its surroundings is the 4 km tunnel that will enable efficient and attractive connections between the city of Leipzig and its hinterland. The developers of the City tunnel are the German Land of Saxony, Deutsche Bahn and the City of Leipzig. The European Union and the federal government of Germany are supporting this project. Click here and de/30. Visit www.citytunnelleipzig.de and www.arge-ctl.de
Schlüchtern tunnel
RAIL.ONE has also won contracts for delivery of the standard-design GETRAC A3 ballastless track for the new Schlüchtern tunnel in Germany, as well as for upgrading of the existing tunnel at the same location in Sinntal-Sannerz, in eastern Hesse, Germany. After similar contracts for the Kehre tunnel (2001), the Heiligenberg tunnel (2001-2002), the Esslingerberg tunnel (2004) and the Brandleite tunnel (2005), the Schlüchtern tunnel marks the fifth tunnel in succession to be equipped with the GETRAC A3 system.
RAIL.ONE will produce over 14,000 wide concrete sleepers for the Schlüchtern tunnel. In addition, the company will for the first time also manufacture the anchor blocks required for the project. As a result, RAIL.ONE will deliver all components for the GETRAC A3 ballastless system, on a one-stop basis, thereby guaranteeing maximum quality and operational safety and reliability.
The GETRAC A3 is a ballastless track system with direct support of wide concrete sleepers on a multi-layer asphalt course. Special anchor blocks fix the concrete sleepers to the supporting layer below to provide a high degree of positional security of the track panel. The system is characterised by long-lasting stability of track position, which guarantees high quality, safety and availability over the long term. The wide sleepers, inherently part of the system, additionally reduce track structural height and the loads applied to the track substructure.
The Schlüchtern railway tunnel, until now double-track in a single tube, is on the line between Hanau and Fulda. It was opened in 1914 and is 3,576 m long. It is the second longest tunnel on the old network of Deutsche Bahn. With an average of approximately 270 trains per day, the line is one of the busiest train routes in Germany, with important connections from Frankfurt to Hamburg and Berlin. As a result of the condition of the structural components of the tunnel, and owing to new tunnel regulations, the decision was made to comprehensively upgrade the tunnel and to build a second tunnel tube.
Beginning in mid-2009, the plan is for train traffic to be routed initially on a dual-track basis through the new tunnel tube, while the old tube is being restored and adapted to the new safety stipulations. When work is completed, traffic will be routed on single tracks through each of the tubes, with the rest of the tunnel area to be used for rescue access. The entire project is scheduled for completion in 2013. Click here and de/19. 36/08.
