News Release
No. 201813

Decem ber 28, 2018

The 4th Japan-UK Track Maintenance Workshop Held in Winchester, UKOn November 22, 2018, the Railway Technical Research Institute and University ofSouthampton held the 4th Workshop on Track Maintenance between UK and Japan inWinchester, UK.
Since 2013, RTRI started to hold Japan-UK workshop on track maintenance in order to pickup issues shared by Japan and UK and develop them into future joint research projects. This
year’s workshop, the 4th one, was held at Wessex Centre of Winchester Cathedral inWinchester and 35 persons from RTRI, 6 universities of UK and Japan and 2 rail operatorsfrom Japan participated. They had discussions regarding issues of railway tracks including
high-speed rail track.
The workshop was started by the welcome greetings by Professor William Powrie of Univ. ofSouthampton, and followed by 8 presentations from UK side and 7 from Japan side, total 15presentations. The topics of presentations by UK included track maintenance of HS1*1, theresearch into fiber-reinforced trackbed ballast , test equipment for railway track, and track
design considering the construction of HS2*2. The presentations by Japanese researchers
dealt with maintenance of Shinkansen, mechanical properties of ballast and track vibration.
Through the presentations, they shared information regarding the latest research output onballasted track and slab track. The workshop was closed by the remarks by Dr. Momoya,
Head of Track Structures and Geotechnology Laboratory, and Prof. Powrie and they agreed
that ballasted and slab track maintenance and high-speed rail design are important issues
shared by both countries and they will continue sharing information.
Outline of Prof. Powrie’s opening remark:This is the 4h of the UK-Japan track maintenance workshop. At the first workshop mainly thetopics regarding ballasted track were dealt with, but since the 2nd workshop, we have picked
up issues on high-speed rail and slab track. In the U.K., HS2 project is currently going on
and it has been discussed which of ballasted or slab tracks should be adopted for HS2. At
this workshop, 15 presentations will be made including that issue. I am looking forward toproductive discussions.

1Outline of Dr. Momoya’s closing remark:
Today, we had presentations covering a wide range of issues on ballasted and slab track.
UK and Japan share the technical issues of both types of tracks and the issues need furtherresearch and development. I would like to propose that the next workshop be held in 2020,at RTRI or the Univ. of Leeds.
Outline of Prof. Powrie’s closing remark:This has been a very interesting workshop with many presentations on ballasted track
maintenance, high-speed line design, noise and vibration, We hope to keep in touch withJapanese researchers toward 5th workshop.

*1 HS1: High Speed One
A high-speed railway line in UK connecting the Channel Tunnel and Saint Pancras Station in London.
*2 HS2: High Speed Two
A high-speed railway line planned in UK following the opening of HS1. The first-stage line is to be openedin 2026, connecting London and Birmingham.

Prof. Powrie making an opening remark

2Dr. Momoya making a closing remark

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