UIC held the 9th Noise Workshop in Paris on 18 November 2014 focusing on recent and forthcoming initiatives at European level for the reduction of rail freight noise.
The workshop was attended by 100 stakeholders working in the field of railway noise control. The programme opened with the consideration of European policy, with presentations by Piotr Rapacz (DG MOV), Marco Paviotti (DG ENV) and Libor Lochman (CER). These were followed by a lively debate with important questions raised on the best way to balance differing priorities across the Single European Railway Area.
The second session opened with a presentation by Marie-Eve Héroux of the World Health Organisation considering current work on the development of guidelines for noise in the European Region. This was followed by a wider perspective considering the overall environmental impact of transport in terms of external costs, presented by S Markovic-Chenais (UIC). An expert review of the current knowledge of railway noise control and a proposal for acoustic criteria for new LL blocks were then presented by Franck Poisson (SNCF) and Fabien Letourneaux (Systra). The session finished with an outline of the future for railway research funded by the European Union within the context of the Shift2Rail programme and EUROC consortia, presented by John Lutz (UIC).
The final sessions examined different perspectives from across Europe regarding Noise Differentiated Track Access Charging and retrofitting with low noise LL-blocks. This included contributions from Andreas Huland (German Government), Cigdem Goncalves (DB Netz), Alfred Pitnik (Rail Cargo Group), Jurg Wohlwend (Swiss Government), Marcus Vaerst (UIP), Bernhard Baumeister (Becorit), Ward Verhelst (Infrabel), Jan Hlaváček (VUZ) and Peter Huebner (UIC).
UIC would like to thank all those who contributed to the success of the event and in particular Jakob Oertli for moderating the event. Finally we would like to wish Peter Huebner a happy retirement and thank him for the many years he has worked towards achieving a silent railway.
