Project aims to identify and warn of low adhesion on railway tracks

Low adhesion is caused by the contamination of railways lines by biological, chemical and physical factors, some of which cannot be easily monitored or controlled. The RSSB estimate that the overall cost of low adhesion to the UK railway industry is around £350m each year.

Changes in adhesion can be very localised, unpredictable and transient, and poor adhesion experienced by one train may not affect following trains at the same location.

Now, engineers from Loughborough University, Sheffield University and engineering firm Perpetuum have partnered to develop a new product that will detect low adhesion hot spots in real-time and create an up-to-date map of the UK’s network which shows where any hazards might be.

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In a statement, Loughborough’s Dr Chris Ward, who is leading the initiative, said: “Network Rail and the wider rail industry invests huge amounts of money in rail head cleaning, controlling flora alongside lines and forecasting where low adhesion events may occur – but it’s not an exact science and affected areas may only be discovered after an incident has taken place.