We are proud to announce a remarkable achievement: three of our innovative products have been recognized with the Progressive Railroading Readers’ Choice Awards 2025. This comes after UNISTAR HR was already honored in 2024, underlining our consistent focus on innovation, performance, and sustainability.
These awards hold particular significance because they are decided by industry professionals. More than 45,000 subscribers to Progressive Railroading’s Daily News eNewsletter were invited to vote, resulting in over 18,000 ballot visits. This strong participation ensures that the winners represent the solutions that truly address the industry’s most pressing needs.
The UNISTAR HR secured victory in the Communications & Signaling (C&S) Products category for the second consecutive year. By integrating point machine, control, and monitoring into one intelligent system, it improves availability, safety, and efficiency for operators worldwide. Its robust design detects both vital and non-vital conditions and supports both legacy infrastructure and future digital interfaces.
Alvarez Gonzalez Daniel, Senior Vice President Product & Market Portfolio, voestalpine Signaling Sainerholz GmbH highlights the ongoing evolution:
Even the UNISTAR HR has an awesome worldwide implementation, it is still impressive to see how much evolution this product can bring into their environment with huge improvements and advantages to all its surroundings like the operators, the maintainers, the trackwork, the constructors, etc. Our constant developments, with it being fully intelligent and integrating the object controller into the machine shows that the UNISTAR HR is kept to be ‘one step ahead.”
With its proven global track record, UNISTAR HR remains a cornerstone of digital signaling innovation.
The UNIVERSAL HST® (Hollow Switch Tie) achieved recognition in two categories: New Products (launched in 2023 or after) and Sustainable Products. Its design is a game-changer for turnout systems, offering maximum field flexibility and long-term sustainability.
The Universal HST® features adaptable switch plates mounted to a permanently bonded, electrically isolated shim plate, eliminating the need for separate insulation during reconfiguration. Its modular concept allows quick adaptation to any switch size, hand, or machine position, while composite “Blue Rods” and Huck-fastened plates enhance durability and tamping resistance.
Eric Gray, Engineering Manager, R&D Technology Trackwork at voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak, emphasizes the importance of adaptability and sustainability in modern turnout solutions:
The Universal HST® winning the Progressive Railroading Reader's Choice Award in the sustainable product category is a testament to our commitment to innovation and sustainability. The recognition highlights our customer's needs for adaptable products that can be configured to work in a variety of situations. The Universal HST® is designed with flexibility in mind, featuring adaptable switch plates that can be configured for any turnout hand or size without the need to handle any insulation. This results in an adaptable product that reduces inventory needs, improves signal reliability, and addresses the dynamic needs that materialize in the field.
The Universal HST® demonstrates how thoughtful engineering, shaped by customer needs, contributes to efficient and sustainable railway systems.
The HIGH ATTENUATION SPECIAL TRACKWORK DIRECT FIXATION FASTENERS (HA SERIES) were recognized in the Existing Product – New Feature or Upgrade category. Developed for urban environments, they address a growing need: reducing noise and vibration for communities while maintaining performance.
The system achieves this with a low stiffness rating of 55,000 lbs/inch and is available in eight sizes of vulcanized, US-made fasteners. Factory-welded shoulders enable fast and reliable installation, while full compatibility with Nortrak special trackwork DF footprints ensures adaptability without expensive retrofits.
Tara Ross, Product Manager at voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak, reflects on the innovative approach behind our award-winning fastening system:
voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak is honored to hear of the win for our high-attenuation direct fixation fastening system for slab tracks in the new feature category. By taking a novel approach to a long-standing problem, our team leveraged its strengths to create an innovative and compact high-attenuation fastener design for turnouts that minimize the transmission of noise and vibrations to the surrounding environment.
The HA Series demonstrates how proven products can be continuously improved to meet new requirements in urban mobility and passenger comfort.
Achieving three awards across three distinct categories underscores our commitment to systems solutions shaping the future of rail. Our global teams continue to focus on delivering solutions that combine innovation, safety, efficiency, and sustainability—from advanced turnout systems to sustainable fasteners and digital-ready controllers.
These recognitions are not just milestones; they are a motivation to further strengthen our role as the global leader for Performance on Track®.