The UIC Noise and Vibration Sector NOVITÀ recently convened in Madrid for a highly successful meeting hosted by the Spanish Railway Infrastructure Manager (ADIF) at their training centre in Madrid, bringing together over 45 experts, with half attending in-person and the remainder joining remotely. The focus was on addressing noise and vibration challenges in the railway sector, with this collaborative effort aiming to ensure quieter operations for railway undertakings and infrastructure managers.
NOVITÀ has many influential financial contributors, including ADIF, the Norwegian National Rail Administration (Bane NOR), Deutsche Bahn, the Italian State Railways (FS), the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (FTIA), High-Speed Limited 2 (HS2), Infrabel, the Railway Infrastructure Manager of Portugal (IP SA), Network Rail, Dutch Railways (NS), Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), ProRail, the National Spanish Railways Network (RENFE), the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), SNCF Mobilité/Réseau, the National Railway Infrastructure Manager of Czech Republic (SZCZ) and the University of Birmingham. It is therefore a key advisory group within UIC, playing an important role in shaping global efforts towards noise and vibration management in the field. Additionally, NOVITÀ has been given the green light to continue as a permanent project from 2024, welcoming new members to help promote collaboration.
Sector meetings are important for sharing information on local and international noise and vibration activities, standardisation efforts, and to monitor European legislation together with other stakeholders. The sector also provides a comprehensive overview of current ongoing projects and working groups in the noise and vibration domain. In particular, information from the UIC Acoustics of reprofiling and on-board monitoring of rail roughness (ACORD) project, progress on the UIC LOWNOISEPAD project concerning cost-effective noise control with optimised rail pads, as well as #VehicleNoise, #CurveSqueal groups and the UIC AERONOISE project (led by the Track Expert Group within the UIC Rail System) were discussed.
Meetings aside, attendees took part in enriching visits to the Spanish Railway Museum in Madrid and to the Centro de Estudios y Experimentación de Obras Públicas (CEDEX). Of particular interest was the exploration of the CEDEX Track Box (CFC), a cutting-edge facility designed to test the geotechnical behaviour of railway infrastructure, composed of track bed layers and embankments.
What’s next?
You are warmly invited to attend a presentation on 16 April by Pinar Yilmazer, UIC Senior Programme Advisor for Sustainability and Manager of the UIC Noise and Vibration Sector, highlighting the most recent technical advancements within the sector.
Save the date: the next sector meeting will be on 9 and 10 October in Stockholm, hosted by Trafikverket. Contact the UIC advisors via noisevibration at uic.org for more information.
Stay tuned for further updates and insights from UIC!
