Keynote lecture: new practical insights towards resilient and sustainable highspeed rail infrastructures

Highspeed rail development is a catalyst for enabling sustainable urban systems. By the next decade, the high majority of people will live in an urban setting or a megacity. This has created a viable opportunity to develop the most sustainable and environment-friendly mobility for the region. Highspeed rail systems emit the least carbon footprint per traveller per distance, compared with the other transport modes. The highspeed rail (HSR) development has also created economic regrowth of the regions and many job opportunities as the system stays for more than 100 years of service life. Because of the positive values, HSR has been considered for development in many countries around the globe. This lecture will therefore be devoted to the practical insights derived from extensive research and experience on the topic of high speed rail infrastructures across the globe. The aspects of track design, maintenance and construction with digital innovation as a tool to aid engineers to do better will be discussed. HSR is considered to be one source of noise complaints. Noise and vibration problems in HSR are not new indeed. However, its mitigation solutions have been implemented and progressed in practice. This lecture will demonstrate the noise and vibration issues in HSR sector. In addition, it will entail the fundamental and practical insights that lead to various ad hoc and engineered mitigation solutions. The geotechnical issues of dynamic vehicle-track analysis, critical track velocity, geodynamic modelling, practical issues with respect to the interpretation and measurements of shear and Rayleigh waves, and high speed rail track systems will be illustrated to assist engineers and designers to make a well-inform decision. The pros and cons, life cycle aspects, uncertainties, resilience and adaptation to climate impacts, as well as sustainability of the HSR infrastructure solutions will be discussed.