First ‘silent’ railway track installed in UK [June 2012]

The special railway track, called SilentTrack, developed by British scientists and engineers at Tata Steel, has been installed for the first time in the UK at Blackfriars station in London. This kind of innovative railway track is expected to reduce rail traffic noise in and around Blackfriars – one of the capital's busiest stations – by up to 50 per cent.
The installation of 1.3 km of SilentTrack is part of the Thameslink Programme, a major project that is expected to lead to the deployment of more frequent, longer, and brand new trains on the Thameslink line and bring major developments to three central London stations by 2018.
David Benton, one of the Tata Steel engineers who developed SilentTrack, comments, "With increased traffic through Blackfriars as part of the Thameslink Programme it was important to consider measures to keep noise to a minimum for local residents and businesses”.
"SilentTrack will reduce peak noise levels from moving trains by about a half. This means the enhanced railway, when it opens later this year, will have no greater noise impact than the existing railway", he adds.SilentTrack, which is already in operation in 13 countries, uses patented dampers attached to the sides of railway track to absorb vibration in the track as trains move over it, which reduces their overall noise impact. The dampers are made in the UK from Scunthorpe-made steel encased in a rubber-like material, and are acoustically tuned to the track.
SilentTrack was developed when Tata Steel engineers teamed up with acoustic experts at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the University of Southampton.

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