Rail researchers at the University of Huddersfield (www.hud.ac.uk) have taken part in a £16 million European project designed to find ways of boosting the capacity, reliability and cost-effectiveness of Europe’s railways.

The project — In2Rail — was part of three ‘lighthouse’ projects kick-starting the Shift2Rail joint undertaking. The projects’ overall findings were presented at the TRA 2018 event in Vienna in April, and now the researchers are due to present more details about their findings at an international conference in Barcelona.

The university is home to the Institute of Railway Research (IRR), which has contributed to several facets of the EU-funded Shift2Rail.

At the IRR in Huddersfield, Yann Bezin and Dimitrios Kostovasilis had key roles in two work packages in the Smart Infrastructure category.

They investigated a range of radical innovations to points and crossings — the components of the railway that are most susceptible to damage and fatigue.

Among the new concepts examined by the IRR researchers and their partners (headed by Network Rail) were unconventional methods for guiding rail vehicles without the need for points, including an engineering solution known as flange-back steering.

Advanced simulation software was used to evaluate the potential of this.

Despite the obvious benefit of removing the weakest component of current points systems, the radical solution brings additional challenges, but the IRR believes a “stepping stone has been reached in its understanding”.