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Railway noise under review with WSP

WSP's specialist Acoustics team has been commissioned to measure noise emissions from the 'new' X40 (double-decker train) and X60 (Stockholm Public Transport's new commuter train) railcars.  The results of the measurements will be included in the Nordic model for calculating railway noise.

Tomas Jerson from our acoustics team in our Gothenburg office specialises in assessing railway noise.  With the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, he has received a grant from the Swedish Rail Administration to measure the noise emissions from these new railcars. 

The value of his research is its inclusion in the Nordic model for calculating railway noise, to aid future forecasts for new and existing sections of track.

Tomas presented the results from the current TVANE (Train Vibration and Noise Exposure) project at the Inter-Noise Conference in Shanghai in October 2008.  On this project he is working with the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute and AMM GU (Occupational and Environmental Medicine at University of Gothenburg) in another Banverket-financed research project which will run until 2010.

This project consists of a number of smaller studies of road and rail noise both in the field and in the laboratory.  A number of sleep studies are being carried out at AMM's new laboratory.  The research subjects are exposed to noise and vibration from road and rail traffic in a controlled manner for a number of nights. The results of the project are expected to provide greater knowledge of the mechanisms in the event of disturbance caused by noise and vibration.  Increased knowledge in this area is very important to Banverket, as it is estimated that rail traffic will increase in the future in terms of number, speed, length and weight.

Contact: Tomas Jerson: tomas.jerson@wspgroup.se