Report about the application and the experience

with ballastless track

Annex 3
Visits to ballastless track systems in Japan
Report and conclusions

UIC Project I/03/U/283 Ballastless Track Version 2005-11-03

Report about the application and the experience with ballastless track

Annex 3 Report and conclusions

Visit to the ballastless track systems in Japan

Page 2 of 7

Content
1

INTRODUCTION

OBJECTIVES

PROGRAM

RESULTS

CONCLUSIONS

Chapter 1 Daily Report

Chapter 2 Questionnaire for ballastless track in Japan

UIC Project I/03/U/283 Ballastless Track Version 2005-11-03

Report about the application and the experience with ballastless track

Annex 3 Report and conclusions

Visit to the ballastless track systems in Japan

Page 3 of 7

Visit to the ballastless track systems in Japan

Report and conclusions
1 Introduction
Japanese Rail is very often seen as the reference in railways with the Sinkansen network
being the parade horse. When defining the work program of this working group it was clear
that no state of the art report for ballastless tracks could be complete if the Japanese tracks
would not have been considered. JR indeed applies ballastless track systems for almost 30
years on commercial lines and on high speed lines and their reports seem very promising.
Consequently it was decided from the start of the working group that the Japanese Railways
should be visited in order to get a better understanding of their system and to evaluate the
transferability to European railways.

Figure 1 The parade horse Shinkansen

2 Objectives
The objectives of the visit were not limited to a visit of the track systems themselves, as they
can not be properly understood if the whole railway system is not considered and this against
the background of the Japanese society.
Understanding a railway system should consider all aspects, starting from the design
principles applied for both rolling stock and track. Apart from design rules it is obvious that
practical aspects, such as maintenance practice, operational limitations and social, political
and financial policies, have a big influence on the design and should therefore be taken into
account if one wants to understand the options that are taken by the designers.
This knowledge is essential to compare these track systems with the European ones.

UIC Project I/03/U/283 Ballastless Track Version 2005-11-03

Report about the application and the experience with ballastless track

Annex 3 Report and conclusions

Visit to the ballastless track systems in Japan

Page 4 of 7

3 Program
The objectives being quiet large, this could not be obtained by assessing articles or with
discussions with the design institute only. For this reason the experts established a complete
program, which permitted them to experience the different aspects of the railway system. The
program included visits on site by which the experts could experience the state of the different
track systems. During these visits discussions took place with the system designers.
Discussions with the researchers at the RTRI permitted to better understand the basic design
rules as well as the development policies of the Japanese Railways.

Figure 2 Shinkansen visit program

But the experts also decided to have an independent view on the railway and track systems by
experiencing in total 3000 km of tracks on both classic and high speed lines. Finally the
experts got the opportunity to experience a nightly track renewal, and this way they feel to
have had a good overview of the total system and they are confident they are able to answer to
questions that are raised.

UIC Project I/03/U/283 Ballastless Track Version 2005-11-03

Report about the application and the experience with ballastless track

Annex 3 Report and conclusions

Visit to the ballastless track systems in Japan

Page 5 of 7

4 Results
Undoubtedly, the Japanese railway system is of a very high standard. Its reliability is with a
mean delay of 20 seconds (sic) without any competition one of the best in the world. The
trains are running frequently, have a high degree of quality and are very clean and
comfortable. The total comfort level is very high which is not only due to the high quality
trains but also to the client oriented personnel and the track quality. Design rules are such that
they offer low lateral accelerations and the track quality on both ballast and ballastless track is
very high. Japanese Rail can therefore be seen as one of the best, if not the best railway
system on the world.
From the different visits and discussions although is obvious that social politics in Japan are
very different from the rest of the western world. Low qualified jobs are not so systematically
automated as in Europe and manpower is not seen as to be eliminated. Maintenance poor
design are not only inspired by the aim to reduce costs but mainly because the lack of train
interruptions and the limited availability of workers in Japan.

Figure 4 - Railways a performing and popular transport system

The policy on railways is very different from the European one too. Mainly integrated railway
systems run trains on their own lines and competition is limited to the different railway
networks in the urban area of Tokyo. From the other traffic modii, only air (and not road
transport) seems to be the mayor competitor for the train operators. They are able to cope with
this competition through high quality and high train occupations throughout the day and
week. This may not surprise if you know that Japanese Rail is responsible for about 25% of
the total rail traffic in the world.

UIC Project I/03/U/283 Ballastless Track Version 2005-11-03

Report about the application and the experience with ballastless track

Annex 3 Report and conclusions

Visit to the ballastless track systems in Japan

Page 6 of 7

Japanese railways have an intensive test program and large test facilities at which they seem
to verify every new evolution in the track world; standardisation although does not seems to
be an issue.

Figure 5 - Test facilities at the RTRI

Track designers also dont have to take into account the high wheel loads that can be seen in
Europe and the U.S.A. Both for classic and high speed traffic, the mean axle load lays about
12 to 13 tons. The dynamic factor seems to be reduced because of the high track quality
obtained by intensive maintenance. Opposite to Europe, track systems in Japan are designed
to be maintainable in order to make such high quality standards feasible. As an example one
can see that all fastenings are adjustable to achieve a very constant gauge (and alignment) but
this is achieved in such way that maintenance should be performed yearly to assure the
fastening effectiveness. From this can be seen that the systems are not fool prove as most
European designer presumes to be necessary.

Figure 6 Typical track situation at Shinkansen station

The choice for ballastless systems in Japan is determined by the need to reduce maintenance
but seems largely influence by other choices which are not obvious in Europe. So most of the
Shinkansen lines are put on viaducts several meters above ground level. This limits the
additional cost for ballastless tracks and bearing in mind that ballast mats are seen as standard
on ballasted track, this may prove the small difference in investment cost between the two
solutions. Therefore it seems logic for JR to limit the use of ballast tracks for new lines to
situations were the settlement risk is to high, i.e. on bad soils.

UIC Project I/03/U/283 Ballastless Track Version 2005-11-03

Report about the application and the experience with ballastless track

Annex 3 Report and conclusions

Visit to the ballastless track systems in Japan

Page 7 of 7

5 Conclusions
Japan disposes of a very performing railway system which seems to cope perfectly with
competition and which is of a very high standard. Nevertheless care should be taken to select
separate solutions from this railway system and transfer it without thorough reflection into
Europe. The whole social and political system seems very different to Europe. This
influences clearly the economic situation of the different companies as well as their
maintenance policy, and the different subsystems are to be seen in relation to this situation.
The basic design principals, such as the track loads, are completely different from the criteria
used in Europe. Finally one can see that the quality approach is totally different from the one
practised on European networks.
Consequently the authors of this article are convinced that transferring the track system to
Europe without proper redesign and without taking into account the different situation in
Europe might be dangerous.
They also feel that a comparable redesigned solution might result in a non economical system
taken into account the different economical, social and organisational situation in the
European railway system. In this respect, the adjustable fastenings and the multiplication of
transitions between ballast zones and slabs (p.ex. near ballasted turnouts and bridges), can be
seen as typical examples.
Finally one can see that the use of slab track systems on earthworks have been experienced on
a rather short portion so that one can conclude that the main experience on this matter is
gained in Germany.
The chapters are provided with the following numbers:

Chapter 1 Daily Report

Chapter 2 Questionnaire for ballastless track in Japan

UIC Project I/03/U/283 Ballastless Track Version 2005-11-03

Report about the application and the experience with ballastless track