For over 20 years, voestalpine Rail Technology, a subsidiary of voestalpine Railway Systems, has fostered a strong partnership in Scandinavia. An interdisciplinary project team collaborates to continuously optimize the infrastructure of the Ofotline in Norway (42 km) and the Malmbanan in Sweden (362 km) – two crucial heavy-haul railway lines for ore transport.
Together with infrastructure operators, the mining company LKAB as the vehicle owner, and maintenance providers, new products and solutions are tested. The project emphasizes a systemic approach, as highlighted by Rainer Hochfellner from Product Management:
System thinking is embraced both by us and our partners. Together, we analyze rail profiles, vehicles, and wheels, as well as their interactions, to develop the optimal overall system for all stakeholders.
In Sweden, the proven 400 UHC® HSH® rail grade is utilized. This robust rail grade is specifically designed to handle extreme loads while minimizing maintenance requirements – a crucial advantage for heavy-haul operations.
The long-standing cooperation is also highly valued by Svetlana Lorentzen, Track Engineer at Bane NOR:
We look back on a successful technical partnership with voestalpine Railway Systems on the Ofotline – whether in optimizing profiles, advancing new rail grades, or reducing maintenance efforts. Joint measurements have helped us better understand track behavior and derive the right measures. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with such an innovative partner.