Life cycle assessment of a railway tracks substructures: Comparison of ballast and ballastless rail tracks

• Published in: Environmental impact assessment review 2020-11, Vol.85, p.106444-11, Article 106444
• Main Authors: Pons, Joaquín J., Villalba Sanchis, Ignacio, Insa Franco, Ricardo, Yepes, Víctor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beds (process engineering); Decision makers; Environmental aspects; Environmental assessment; Environmental factors; Environmental impact; Environmental information; Evaluation; High speed railway (HSR); Infrastructure; Life cycle analysis; Life cycle assessment; Life cycle assessment (LCA); Life cycles; Modernization; Passengers; Rail transportation; Railroad ballast; Railroad ties; Railway engineering; Railway infrastructure; Railway track-bed; Railway tracks; Service life; Shafts (machine elements); Steel industry; Steel production; Substructures; Sustainable development; Traffic speed; Unevenness
• ISSN: 0195-9255; 1873-6432
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eiar.2020.106444

The increase of train speed and axle load is an essential goal to make the railway transport more and more competitive for passengers and freights. On this basis, the unevenness of the railway track is crucial for the safety of the railway due to the high speed of the vehicle. Although ballasted tracks represent by far the most used railway track substructure, in recent years the modernization process has led the development of the ballastless track substructures. In deciding between the use of ballasted or ballastless track substructure there are many important technical, economical and environmental factors that have to be addressed. Based on the above, the principal objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental impact of different railway track substructures including ballast, cast-in sleeper and embedded track systems on the short, medium and long term. To accomplish this task, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out throughout the entire life cycle of the railway infrastructure by using the ReCiPe (H) method. Although such approach is commonly included in the environmental assessment of building products and buildings, it was rarely applied in the analysis of the environmental impacts of railway track substructure. Thus, the result of these LCA showed that ballasted tracks cause the lowest environmental impact for service lives of up to 75 years. On the other hand, the embedded track beds cause the highest environmental impacts, regardless of their service life. The highest contributor for the environmental impacts of the track beds was the steel production. The results of this study will provide relevant environmental information for engineers and decision makers to select the most adequate railway track substructures for addressing issues related to the pursuit of sustainable development. •Rail construction and maintenance phases should not be neglected in LCA approach.•LCA of rail track require more standardized assessment procedures.•Environmental LCA of different railway track substructures were analyzed.•Damage categories have been normalized for the total environmental impact.•Future LCA of rail projects should also consider the time effect.