Study "Noise on the railway corridor Rotterdam - Genoa" published

Last November, the Ministries of Transport of the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Italy have instructed a study on railway noise on the corridor Rotterdam - Genoa. The consultancy company assigned to this task set up a questionnaire and conducted two stakeholder consultation meetings. Based on these analysis, the study could be completed in time. The results were presented to the Executive Board of Corridor A in end of April. In the recent weeks, the study was finalized and it has now been published.

Scope of the study was to analyse the various economic models currently used in the four corridor countries and on European level, Furthermore, the study submits proposals for harmonized, efficient and corridorwide solutions. As the corridor Rotterdam - Genoa has a clear focus on freight, the discussed noise mitigation measures centre on wagons with new (silent) braking blocks (K or LL blocks). All the scenarios work with a mixture of economic incentive parameters, direct funding and bans stimulating RUs and wagon keepers to retrofit their fleet with a silent braking system.

Following this approach, the study recommends European and harmonized solutions wich covers the four countries as a whole, and not only the corridor. Any funding or national co-financing should focus only on noisy wagons, The retrofitting period should be as short as possible not starting before the LL blocks (preferred technology) are homologated. The overall administrative system should be kept as simple as as possible to minimize transaction costs. The study advises the Ministries of Transport to cover both initial costs and additional maintenance costs in order to avoid any negative impact on the modal split.