Coventry Very Light Rail Project

Coventry Very Light Rail (CVLR) is a light tram / rail operating in Conventry.

Designed to be one of its kind, the system is battery powered, eliminating the need for overhead wires. The low-profile track makes use of advanced materials to optimise its performance characteristics, whilst also employing standard rail parts where possible to ensure ease of manufacturing and use of existing supply chains.

Although light rail systems offer benefits for cities in terms of transportation and air quality, the costs associated with system installation are often out of reach given funding constraints. Typical system costs may be in excess of £70 million per kilometer meaning that new networks are likely to run to billions of pounds. Early project research by the WMG-Coventry City Council team revealed that a significant proportion of these costs are related to the diversion of utilities. Convention light rail systems utilise deep foundations, leading to interaction with utilities and therefore resulting in diversions, delays and project management costs.

Coventry City Council set WMG the challenge of developing a low-profile light rail track system that requires a dig depth of no more than 30 cm. Together with an innovation partner Ingerop-Rendel, a high-performance shallow slab system was developed meeting the requirements for mechanical performance due to both the light rail vehicles and heavy good vehicles. To achieve secure fixing of the rails to the high-performance slabs, the fixing inserts need to provide flexibility and be able to withstand the applied forces. Another consideration is for the fixing bolts to provide reliable integrity for long-term exposure. They have to be secure yet allow for enough movement caused by the tram cars and the material expansion due to the weather exposure. They also need to be durable to long-term repetitive loading from rail and road vehicles.

The support from CFS helped WMG to deliver a functional design that has the potential to revolutionise city public transport infrastructure projects.

CFS and WMG continued to work together to further optimise the design. We are currently looking at changing the coating of the bolts to modify friction but provide equivalent corrosion protection as galvanising. The benefit is that the reduced friction can provide more reliable bolt torque to be achieved.

Having worked together on this project WMG and CFS have started a partnership that focuses on new product development for the precast industry.