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Rail noise from freight trains has been halved and TRANSWAGGON has contributed to the noise reduction measures through support from the Federal Government and the European Union’s CEF funding instrument. Rail noise will soon be no more than a distant memory.
Residents living near railway lines who are plagued by noise can breathe a sigh of relief. Brakes on all freight train wagons travelling through Germany are currently being converted and are therefore significantly quieter. Quiet brakes have been mandatory on new wagons for years now with the innovative whisper brake replacing the previous cast iron brake blocks in the existing fleet of older wagons. Rail noise can thus be reduced by around ten decibels, which corresponds to about half the noise level. The well-known composite brake blocks for new wagons and the new LL-blocks (“low noise, low friction”) for existing wagons mean the running surfaces of the wheels are not roughened as much as with the original cast iron brake blocks. The wheel, smoothed by the composite brake blocks, runs much more smoothly and quietly on the rail. In July 2017, the German Bundestag passed the Rail Noise Mitigation Act with the approval of the German Bundesrat, banning the operation of noisy freight wagons. The complete conversion of wagons running on the German rail network is scheduled for the end of 2020. TRANSWAGGON and the other wagon keepers in Germany support this initiative and we are doing everything in our power to convert our existing fleet in a timely manner.
As the most flexible logistics partner in rail freight transport, the TRANSWAGGON Group has been developing innovative, climate-neutral and reliable transport solutions for its customers since 1965. TRANSWAGGON has been investing in low noise wagons for many years now, even though there was no legal obligation to do so for new designs and gained experience with whisper brakes at an early stage. In 2017, 22% of TRANSWAGGON’s stock was low-noise wagons. TRANSWAGGON successfully started to convert the brakes on existing wagons in 2017. A total of approximately 10,000 existing TRANSWAGGON wagons with cast iron brake blocks are to be retrofitted with LL blocks. The costs for the conversion of around EUR 20 million will be partly covered by a federal subsidy programme. The European Union is also supporting the project through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding instrument. For example, the European Union will reimburse TRANSWAGGON with 20% of the eligible conversion costs.
