Implementing ‘smarter maintenance’ of freight rail networks can help shape long-term track renewal projects. That’s the view of track system specialist Peter Juel Jensen, who is helping lead innovative work by the Danish rail network Banedanmark on track measuring,

He shared some of his ideas at the recent Intelligent Rail Summit in Naples, which featured a three-day programme of presentations from some of the world’s foremost railway technology professionals.

Ground penetrating radar

Jensen outlined how operators can gain ‘more railway for the money’ by ensuring maintenance procedures and practices are based on the very best management and interpretation of data from multiple sources. He also highlighted the replacing of traditional track ballast drilling with the more precise ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology, to aid renewal planning. It allows engineers to better extrapolate key information and formulate maintenance plans.

“The most significant difference in the results generated by GPR is that it provides a continuous signal, compared to the point measurements in drilling which only provide discrete, fragmented samples,” said Jensen. “Combined with other linear asset data types, it has the potential to deliver massive savings when compared to traditional ballast drillings.

Railway infrastructure

“As a government agency we have made savings worth hundreds of millions of euros. That money we are saving is part of the railway infrastructure’s life cycle cost, and the best way to measure the success is to examine how effective we use the taxpayers’ money. It is extremely user-friendly and we have a very effective working relationship with the software developers,” added Jensen.

He also highlighted the benefits felt by Banedanmark since adopting the world-leading IRISSYS linear management software system, and the importance of data sharing between organisations: “Why should everybody start from scratch all of the time, instead of learning from each other?” he added.