STAIRRS: Strategies and tools to assess and implement noise reducing measures for railway systems

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 99.0411-1

Key words (English)

Railway noise abatement; cost-benefit analysis

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: 1999-RD.10442

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 1.3.2 Sustainable mobility and intermodality

Short description (English)

See abstract

Partners and International Organizations (English)

Coordinator: Stichting European rail institute, Utrecht (NL)

Abstract (English)

Several countries have enacted severe noise control standards and European noise legislation is being considered as well. Detailed studies in Switzerland, the Netherlands as well as a UIC sponsored study on two freight lines have demonstrated very high costs for noise control, considerable savings can be achieved by choosing those noise control strategies with the best cost-benefit ratio. In an effort to determine optimal strategies on a European as well as on national levels, the E.U. 5th Framework Programme is co-financing the STAIRRS project (Strategies and Tools to Assess and Implement noise Reducing measures for Railway Systems). Work Package 1 is designed to develop the software necessary to undertake large scale cost-benefit analyses. The acoustically relevant geographic, traffic and track data have been collected for 11'000 km of line length in seven European countries. Noise calculations are undertaken with the Eurano 2001 software programme. Standard cost-benefit analysis methodologies were adapted to fit the requirements of noise control projects. A specifically developed extrapolation methodology enables studies on any geographic area of interest, be it individual countries, the EU or Europe as a whole. In parallel an optimisation algorithm allows determining optimal strategies for a specific line under given constraints. The STAIRRS project coordinator is the European Rail Research Institute, the work package leader are the Swiss Federal Railways with the participation of AEAT Technology (NL), German Railways, French Railways, PSI -A Kalivoda Consult (A), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Free University of Brussels.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 99.0411-1