The innovative railway track system was recently installed for the first time at London’s Blackfriars station, one of the busiest in the UK. It is part of the Thameslink programme. Mike Poulter, marketing manager, rail sector, Tata Steel, talks to tata.com about the product.

Can you tell us about the SilentTrack system developed by Tata Steel?
SilentTrack is a noise damper that fits to the side of a rail and absorbs rail wheel interface noise. It meets the requirements of the European Commission noise legislation to manage railway noise in urban environments, where requirements are most stringent on new tracks.

When was this system developed and when was it patented by the company?
The SilentTrack system was developed during the late 1990s and the first patent was filed in 1998. A second patent was filed in 2007, which protects a clip system which is easier to use and more cost-effective than the original glued damper. All sales now use the clip-on approach.

What are the key advantages of this system and where is it likely to prove beneficial?
SilentTrack typically reduces the total noise generated when a train passes by three to six decibels (dB), which is 50 to 75 percent of the total noise. This is a more cost-effective solution than noise barriers, which were previously the main method of addressing noise. It also has the advantage that train passengers and the local community benefit from retaining the views that would otherwise be lost if high noise barriers were erected.

SilentTrack was recently installed at Blackfriars station in London. How effective has it been?
Noise measurements were taken on the track before installing SilentTrack and they will be repeated by Thameslink shortly to establish the improvement. This approach has been adopted at early sites with all new customers and the improvement is consistently in the range of three to six dBs.

Which are the other places where SilentTrack is in use?
Over 100km of SilentTrack has been installed in Germany and Holland, 16km in Australia and trials have been installed in a number of European countries including France, Sweden, Denmark. A recent installation in Singapore has led to approval of the product for more widespread use on the network.

Are you planning to introduce such a system in India?
We would be very pleased to introduce the system in India or anywhere else in the world where there's a market need. However, we are actively targeting the markets where legislation is driving demand for noise control. We have found it to be a slow and costly process to develop a new market unless the need for noise control has already been identified and budgets put in place to address the need. Currently there is massive investment in the Indian rail market but our primary focus is to supply rail rather than SilentTrack.

Could you give us some details about other innovations that are being developed by Tata Steel Europe?
My focus is very much on rail. We have a very active product development programme. Two of our new products won Innovista awards in Mumbai in April 2012. HPrail was a winner in the promising innovations (new product) category. This is a wear and contact fatigue resistant rail which addresses the two most common forms of rail degradation.

This would be an excellent solution for the new freight corridors in India, but approval of new products is a slow and difficult process in India. So it will depend on the reaction that we get when we discuss it with Research Designs and Standards Organisation and the Indian Railways.

A new weld repairable, wear resistant grooved rail won the leading edge (proven technology) award at Innovista. This increases rail life in street running tramways where tight corners cause very high wear. The steel has been developed to have a long life and to be compatible with our patented weld repair process so that it can be rebuilt when wear limits are reached to provide multiple rail lives. This system is only applicable to rail that is embedded in roads, where the cost of rail replacement is enormous, typically £3000/m in the UK cities.