New Alternative vegetation management TechniqUes for an environmentally friendly Railway infrastructurE - Railway Vegetation Management

Introduction

The main objective of the LIFE NATURE-RAIL project is the demonstration of a zero-chemicals and multimethod approach for vegetation control that can be applied to the inspection path in different railway environments.

Innovative Methods

To this end, ProRail (the Dutch rail infrastructure manager) will demonstrate three innovative vegetation control methods along operational rail tracks:

1. Cryogenic treatment
2. Electro-weeding
3. A combination of slow-growing grass and a mowing robot

Cross-Border Applicability

Infrabel (the Belgian rail infrastructure manager) will do a first replication on the Belgian track to demonstrate the cross-border applicability of the methods.

Collaboration

Both Infrabel and the International Union of Railways (Union International des Chemins de fer, UIC) will be involved from the beginning of the project to ensure that ProRail's demonstration is set up and effectuated to take into account non-Dutch and country-specific characteristics affecting maintenance in the rail environment.

The UIC will also contribute to stimulating further replication by other European rail infrastructure managers.

Results and Analysis

The results of the demonstrations will be processed in a cost-benefit analysis to determine the socio-economic performance of the three methods as input to replication tools and policy-making.

It will also be used to develop evidence-based criteria for selecting the most appropriate method for a specific rail environment.