With an investment of 17.9 million euros, Adif has awarded the maintenance and calibration of the new railway infrastructure measurement and verification systems installed on its 'laboratory trains'. These vehicles, known as auscultator trains, play a fundamental role in the maintenance of the network and in tests for the commissioning of new infrastructures.
Adif and Adif Alta Velocidad manage over 15,500km of railway, one of the most extensive and modern in Europe. This comprehensive development, together with increasingly demanding quality standards, has led to a growing need for maintenance of the railway infrastructure. The aim is to ensure that the facilities are in optimum condition and that they are available and reliable at all times. The monitoring of trains is also essential during the construction phase of a line and its commissioning, as the records obtained are required to ensure that the parameters of the various sub-systems comply with the established criteria.
The contract will ensure full availability and the correct acquisition and processing of data, covering all the mechanical, electrical, electronic and computer elements of the systems for measuring the geometry (position of each element of the infrastructure) and dynamics (interaction between the infrastructure and the train) of the track and catenary, odometers (measurement of the speed and distance travelled by the train), optical inspection of the track and catenary, vision in the driver's cab, GSM-R measurement and diagnosis of beacons, and measurement of points and gauges.
The Adif "laboratory" train fleet included in the contract comprises seven vehicles: two in service (known as BT trains, suitable for running on Iberian and standard gauge lines); four new supervision trains, which are in the process of being approved and tested (one variable gauge, one standard gauge and two conventional gauge), with a total investment of 150 million euros in their manufacture and equipping with the most advanced instrumentation; and another train for the narrow gauge network, the manufacture of which will be put out to tender shortly.
