UIC, DB and Trafikverket invited UIC members, together with representatives from the supply industry and academia involved in INNOTRACK, to a two-day workshop on Innovative Switches & Crossings Development within and following the INNOTRACK project from 14 – 15 February 2012 in Eslöv, Sweden.
It has been two years since the INNOTRACK project ended and many activities have taken place since then. One of these has been to test switches in field and relate the results to the findings in INNOTRACK. This task has now been in progress for nearly three years.

The workshop presented the research on innovative switches & crossings (S&C) carried out in INNOTRACK (www.innotrack.eu) with a further discussion on subsequent research & development. This included a site visit to operational switches & crossings that are under long-term evaluation.
The workshop was attended by 44 participants from 13 countries.
To briefly summarise, the workshop consisted of the following:
The first part of the workshop focused on describing the results from INNOTRACK such as “Gauge optimisation and S&C stiffness”, “Deterioration of S&Cs and related costs” and “Numerical simulation of forces in S&Cs and optimisation of S&C design”.

The second part of the workshop focused on describing the results of field and material testing such as “Assessment of Eslöv field measurements using a simulation model for vehicle-track interaction” and “Optimisation of crossing geometry”, “Material characteristics” and “Material deterioration of S&Cs”. The third part involved a presentation delivered by VAE and Vossloh on their experience of S&C development and optimisation in and outside of INNOTRACK.
Finally, the workshop was concluded by UIC and DB.

Several actions were proposed on how to continue the work.