Network Rail’s improved rail recycling facility is expected to save the company ‘around £4m a year’.
The Eastleigh rail depot near Southampton has been upgraded so it can produce 216m lengths of serviceable rail which have been recycled from used rail removed from around the network.
The recycled lengths are up to 70% cheaper than new rail and can be safely used on low volume and rural routes.
The depot first opened in 2001 to weld new 108m rail into 216m lengths ready for track renewal but the recent upgrade means it can now produce up to 10,000 tonnes of 216m recycled serviceable rail, around 8% of the total rail that Network Rail purchases every year.
This is alongside the 50,000 tonnes of new rail currently welded there every year. The upgrade reflects Network Rail’s ongoing commitment to reducing costs and improving efficiencies.
When old rail is replaced around the network it is inspected to assess how much is potentially reusable and then thoroughly tested before being processed at the Eastleigh depot. Any sections not suitable for reuse are removed and the remaining rail welded together to form 216m lengths of serviceable rail.
Martin Elwood, director of Network Rail’s national delivery service which runs the depot, said:
“Recycling old rail into serviceable rail which can be used elsewhere on the network reduces the volume of rail which is scrapped and the amount of new steel used by Network Rail, both of which save money and are better for the environment.”
I cant quite get my head round the benefits suggested by NR on the use of servicable rail. From memory to get 1 tonne of sevicable rail you had to process ~ 4 tonnes of lifted rail. Which is why the process was stopped about ~11 years ago. Further the increase in scrap value makes it further uneconomic to process this type of rail I would suggest.