Environmental life-cycle assessment of railway track beds

In the UK, ballast track beds remain the most commonly constructed, partly because of relatively low initial costs. Concrete track beds, while more expensive to construct, can have lower life-cycle costs and are being actively promoted for use in the UK. This paper describes the results of environmental life-cycle analyses of ballast and generic concrete track beds, including cast-in sleeper and embedded track systems. The scope of the study includes the manufacturing, construction, maintenance, dismantling and recycling of the track bed components. Comparison of the life-cycle analyses of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions shows that concrete slab track beds are not associated with higher environmental burdens compared with ballast track bed. The limitations of the available data are also discussed.