With the WCRR at the sites of railway Innovation
Milan, 2nd June 2016
The World Congress on Railway Research, a convention on the future prospects of railways and mobility, organised in Milan by FS Italiane and the train operator Trenitalia, concludes today with its technical visits.
After three days spent discussing the idea of the train of the future, the 1000 participants, including researchers, engineers and specialists from all over the world, had a chance to visit various sites around Italy; concrete examples of technological innovation in the rail sector.
One of these was the test centre in Osmannoro, Florence, which the delegates travelled to on the Frecciarossa 1000. There, they were able to observe a new test bench which Italcertifer, the engineering consulting company of Italian State Railways (FS), will be using to test each individual train carriage at a top speed of 400 km/h, thus checking the reactions of the materials under stress and measuring the intensity of the electrical and magnetic emissions.
Another stop on the technical tour was RFI’s central site at Milano Greco Pirelli railway station, a unique control tower for managing and monitoring rail traffic in the Lombardy Region and on the Turin – Padua horizontal axis. Here, some 200 Italian Railway Network (RFI) operators work 24 hours a day in shifts using state-of-the-art technology to manage and control rail traffic, passenger information and infrastructure diagnostics, with rail traffic (passenger and freight trains) of approximately 2,400 trains per day, 30% of the nation’s total.
To complete the list of sites visited were Trenord’s maintenance facility in Fiorenza, Milan, Lucchini RS’ site in Rovere, and Alstom’s centre in Sesto San Giovanni.
The train show exhibited at the facility in Fiorenza, Milan, also met with great success during the convention. Indeed, the WCRR participants were able to climb aboard various types of locomotive, from the Frecciarossa 1000 (currently at the test stage for 350 km/h) to Trenitalia’s Jazz commuter trains, via the diagnostic trains (Caronte and Diamante) that RFI uses to check the condition of railway infrastructure.
Also on show: the Flirt train, designed for commuter transport in the Alto Adige
Among the locomotives exhibited in Milan was Trenitalia’s Flirt train, the prototype for the new supply of trains designed for commuter transport in the Alto Adige area.
Thanks to collaboration with STA, some of the Flirts will enter into use as early as December – when the new timetable takes effect – under the service contract between Trenitalia and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen.
The seven Flirts will be equipped with three electrification systems (3kV, 15kV and 25kV) and a European Train Control System (ETCS), thus enabling them to travel on the future electrified Venosta line and in the Brenner Base Tunnel as well as on the traditional lines in Italy and Austria.
It is the first locomotive of its kind for regional transport and therefore an innovative product for use by commuters.