photo: PLK (https://www.plk-sa.pl/pkp-polskie-linie-kolejowe-sa-planuja-ogloszenie-postepowan-przetargowych-na-laczna-kwote-17-mld-do-konca-2021-roku/)/PLK
By the year 2033, it is estimated that the Polish Railways and the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) will spend up to PLN 100 million (EUR 21.87 million) to solve the overall issues tied to important topics within the railway industry such as ecology, damages related to the environment, improvement of the infrastructure diagnostics process, energy efficiency and railway traffic safety.
These two institutions are planning to launch a series of tender processes known as the BRIK which are supposed to define the future of Polish railways. These tender processes will focus on solving the sustainability processes, monitoring the railway networks as well as collecting data on vegetation surrounding the tracks to prevent accidents. It is also expected that all the BRIK research projects should be finished by 2023 for an estimated PLN 43 million (EUR 9.4 million)
The CEO of PKP PLK, Ireneusz Merchel stated, that: “We are using all the possibilities to make the railway even safer, more environmentally friendly, and effective. That is why we look for and implement innovative solutions in the area of safety, maintenance, and operation of railway lines and ecology.”
One of the main goals is to be able to lower the costs of electricity which could be solved by adding photovoltaic panels to the acoustic screens. Early test installations are being held at the Railway Lines Plant in Gdynia and financed by the PLK. Both institutions also expect that in the near future a group of drones will monitor the conditions of the tracks and therefore lower the costs and speed up the process of diagnostics of the tracks which will be highly beneficial without.
another topic on the table at the moment is the possibility of using radiology diagnostics for accurate statistics of the rail tracks, combined with the drone diagnostics could be just the perfect combination of tech development and innovation
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