SAFIRST - Assessment of Wind Exposure of the Line - Technical Report

In 2018, UIC published a White Paper [1] produced by the Train-Track Interaction Sector of the Rail System Department in the field of railway aerodynamics. This field of study has largely been driven by the increasing speeds of high speed passenger trains. However, there are still existing and new lines being designed for the use of mixed traffic at conventional train speeds, including freight services, driven by local demands and the modal shift from road to rail. The White paper looked the field of railway aerodynamics, reviewing the state of the art, identifying problems and knowledge gaps, and proposing areas of research.

One such problem area was in the assessment of the safety in crosswinds of railway vehicles with maximum speeds greater than 140 km/h and less than 250 km/h, where the LOC&PAS TSI [2] does not provide limit values to assess vehicles and the INF TSI [3] does not prescribe methods or guidance for Infrastructure Managers (IMs) to assess their lines for crosswind exposure and the risk of train accidents.

The SAFIRST Project was launched in March 2019 to research these issues and to develop guidance for Infrastructure Managers, by: