We look back at a successful first edition of Railways & Environment in Delft in 2010!

During this two-day conference we have brought together science and industry and have discussed technical research as well as made progress regarding the environment impact of railways on different levels. With the help of the session chairmen, we have formulated a number of conclusions summarizing the conference:
 
- Compared to road and air transportation, the rail mode has a low carbon footprint and should therefore be implemented more extensively in mainland corridors, especially for long distance freight transport, urban/suburban passenger services and long distance / high speed passenger services up to 800 km.

- Integral design and design & process considerations from the point of view of life cycle & socio-economic costs are triggers for innovation. These lead to infrastructure systems with a high RAMS-value. Visualising these costs and considerations for design require attention and effort.

- Renewability has become an increasingly important issue for infrastructure managers and rolling stock manufacturers.

- Investments in fundamental knowledge are required with regard to the quantification of descriptive parameters for system behaviour as a function of time, in order to improve maintenance strategies. Examples are: well-validated and comprehensive deterioration models.

- The increased attention for rail emissions such as sound and vibration nuisance leads to improved prediction models and design procedures. However, due to the spread in input variables, uncertainty remains a difficult factor to control.

- Research on the effects of rail transportation on air pollution and the deterioration of the social environment improves insight in emission sources and creates room for improved design. This research area is developing.

- Measuring energy consumption of rolling stock provides insight in and optimisation of rolling stock and logistic processes. In contrast to expectations, the average energy consumption of high speed trains does not exceed the consumption of conventional trains. Also from this point of view a European high speed network should be able to compete with air transportation.