New Urban Track
Increasing rail wear, complex maintenance interventions, and rising demands for noise reduction and availability characterize the operation of trams and light rail systems.
With New Urban Track, voestalpine Railway Systems has created a newly developed track superstructure system specifically for covered tramways. The result is a robust, maintenance-friendly, and future-proof system solution tailored to the requirements of modern urban tram infrastructure.
The focus is on safety and durability. The key advantage: the rail can be replaced directly within the system without extensive dismantling.
The newly developed 65G1 grooved rail profile specifically addresses weaknesses of conventional profiles:
The design of the rail allows for ultrasonic testing down to the foot of the rail, significantly improving condition monitoring.
New Urban Track is based on an integrated overall system in which all components are optimally coordinated:
The shaft solution allows targeted access to the rail fastenings in the installed state. This significantly reduces the effort required for replacement.
The New Urban Track system is implemented simply and quickly in clearly defined construction phases:
The prefabricated track grid is lifted into the excavation and precisely aligned. The track alignment is achieved via the integrated sleeper system.
The rails are secured using tension clamps, resulting in a height-adjustable or elevating track grid. The chamber infill elements are also integrated before installation.
After precise positioning, the track grid is encased in concrete up to the top of the sleepers and fixed in place during the first concreting phase.*
Subsequently, the access shafts are constructed using formwork (permanent formwork) before the track grid is completely encased in concrete up to the top of the formwork covers.*
In the final phase, an asphalt surface course is applied as a durable wearing course for mixed traffic.
For future rail replacement, it is sufficient to remove this top layer – all underlying components of the track superstructure remain intact and can be reused.
*Depending on the system configuration, the concreting process can also be completed in a single step, further simplifying and accelerating the construction process.
The result is a robust, embedded track system with permanently accessible fixings.
New Urban Track is more than just a track system. For the first time, it combines a wear-optimized rail profile with a maintenance-optimized infrastructure. This simultaneously solves two major challenges of covered tracks: high rail wear and costly replacement.