RAIL.ONE has been awarded a contract for construction supervision services for the second phase of the high-speed rail line from Seoul to Busan, the Kyungbu Line. Up to 5 construction supervisors will be assigned to the areas of project management, track construction, surveying, turnout installation, and rail welding. All services will be provided as part of track construction for the Kyungbu Line, Phase 2, Project Section 4. The RHEDA 2000® ballastless track system will be installed in this area over a section approximately 60 km long.

In addition, RAIL.ONE will deliver approx. 150,000 bi-block concrete sleepers from the RHEDA 2000® system. Production of these sleepers will take place in the plant in Sangju in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province in the southern half of Korea.

For the newly constructed rail line from Perpignan to Figueras in Spain, RAIL.ONE has recently won the contract for delivery of the concrete sleepers. The Perpignan-Figueras line is part of the high-priority Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-V), which connects the Iberian peninsula with the rest of Europe. Completion of this line will link Barcelona and its environs to the French network, by means of a line with standard European gauge. This new line is primarily intended for high-speed passenger traffic, but will also be used for freight. The project, planned for completion in 2009-2010, will result in considerable time saved at the border, since change of gauge will no longer be necessary.

For RAIL.ONE, this requires maximum precision in planning and execution. In addition to the production of 50,000 monoblock sleepers, 14,000 RHEDA 2000® bi-block sleepers, as well as over 10,000 linear metres of turnout sleepers, this contract also includes performance of the required planning services. Production of the main-track sleepers is taking place in our Spanish plant in Constantí, and our plant in Coswig, Germany, will supply the turnout sleepers.

As part of the order to be executed in the area northwest of Madrid, RAIL.ONE by April of 2007 had delivered approx. 100,000 bi-block sleepers for the RHEDA 2000® ballastless track system installed there. A dedicated mobile production plant has been set up near Segovia especially to provide these sleepers. They will be installed for a stretch 28 km long, on a double track in the Guadarrama Tunnel, on the main rail line from Madrid to Valladolid.

As part of the Eje Atlantico project, RAIL.ONE has completed delivery of 7,000 polyvalent bi-block and transition sleepers, including fastening elements and spindles. The sleepers, which had been manufactured by the RAIL.ONE plant in Coswig, Germany, were installed in a tunnel 2 km long on the line from La Coruña to Santiago. An additional contract for 7.8 km on this line was completed in early 2007. By now RAIL.ONE has finished its 4th order here:  for a double-track, 1.2‑km tunnel on the section of line from Ordes to Queixas, in the Spanish province of La Coruña.

As a result, the total number of polyvalent bi-block sleepers delivered from plants in Coswig and Segovia for installation in the Eje Atlantico project, has increased to 25,000.

New construction of the line from Nuremberg to Ingolstadt, Germany, part of the new high-speed link between Nuremberg and Munich, took place completely as ballastless track. In the south and central project sections of the line, with a total length of around 75 km, the RHEDA 2000® system by RAIL.ONE was installed. Precast technology by the Bögl company was implemented on the northern project section.

One of the largest rail-infrastructure projects in Europe is playing a key role in this context: construction of the new Dutch high-speed train line, HSL Zuid, between Amsterdam and the Belgian border. A novel aspect of this 1.2-billion-euro project is the public-private partnership concept for project execution and facilities operation. The consortium planned, financed, and realized the project, which was completed in mid-2006. It is now responsible for operation and maintenance of the line for the following 25 years. The line itself will be leased by the Dutch government. The operators will guarantee line availability of 99%, as measured by punctuality of the trains. The RAIL.ONE RHEDA 2000® system will be implemented over the entire line. The low structural height and the flexible adaptability of the line to the various track substructures were convincing arguments that led to selection of RAIL.ONE technology. Construction of the track itself will take place by a joint-venture company founded for this purpose, with the Dutch Royal BAM Group and RAIL.ONE as partners. The company RHEDA 2000 vof was responsible for project planning, engineering, construction, and quality management.

The decisive entry of RAIL.ONE's ballastless track technology into the Asian market succeeded in the new construction of the high-speed line between Taipei and Kaohsiung, on Taiwan. In addition to the use of Japanese ballastless technology on the open sections of tracks, the RHEDA 2000® system by RAIL.ONE was installed on the demanding sections near the train stations and at the turnout zones. Supply of material to the project placed special engineering and logistical demands on the participating companies. The total of 147 turnouts, with approximately 65,000 linear metres of turnout sleepers, was manufactured in Germany and transported by sea to Taiwan. The majority of the 125,000 main-track sleepers, however, came from local production facilities that were built and operated under the direction of RAIL.ONE. 

The strategic significance of participation in the above-stated major projects consists in good part in the fact that RAIL.ONE has been able to demonstrate the outstanding suitability of its RHEDA 2000® ballastless track technology for all three high-speed train systems currently being operated in the world: the German ICE 3, the French TGV (to be used in the Netherlands), and the Japanese Shinkansen in Taiwan.

The numerous examples outlined above evidence that ballastless track systems – especially the RHEDA 2000® system by RAIL.ONE – are outstandingly well suited on an entirely general basis as the international state-of-the-art technology for construction of demanding high-speed train lines.

In early 2006, RAIL.ONE and the Chinese Ministry of Railways concluded a know-how transfer program and an agreement on application of the RHEDA 2000® ballastless track system in the People’s Republic of China. This agreement grants usufructuary rights to China for the technology involved, and enables RAIL.ONE and its partners to play a key role in planning and construction of the dual Passenger Dedicated Line (PDL) from Wuhan to Guangzhou in the southeast of the country. Almost the entire line, with a length of around 980 km, will be executed in RHEDA 2000®.

As part of the know-how transfer program, more than 60 Chinese engineers, technicians, and managers have completed an extensive training program in Germany. In addition to offering their knowledge on production and maintenance of track sleepers and rail systems, RAIL.ONE staff also related valuable practical experience gained from everyday project work.

In September and November of 2006, an agreement was reached to build a total of 7 plants in China for the production of concrete sleepers for the Wuhan – Guangzhou project. These facilities involve 5 mobile production plants for the manufacture of bi-block sleepers, to be located along the line being constructed – as well as 2 plants for production of turnout sleepers. A total of approx. 3.2 million sleepers will be required on very short notice for construction of the new rail line.

RAIL.ONE achieved this most recent project success with an agreement on the delivery of machines for installation of the RHEDA 2000®. Also included in the contract is provision of engineering by RAIL.ONE.