Railway loading station wins VCÖ Mobility Award 2011
28-Sep-2011
Operation started two years ago - Rail Cargo Austria as logistics partner handles environmentally friendly rail transports from Tyrol to Vorarlberg
Since the completion of the new, modernised railway loading station of “Kieswerk Starkenbach GmbH” in Schönwies, more than 200,000 tons of excavated material are transported by rail from Tyrol to Dornbirn across the Arlberg every year. Yesterday, this innovative project came out first in the category "freight traffic" and won the VCÖ Mobility Award 2011 for Tyrol (the prize was awarded in Vienna on September 27th). The gravel plant Starkenbach was given the award for the railway loading station, which helped to save approximately 3.2 millions of truck kilometres in the year 2010 alone. More than 200,000 tons of material are transported by rail in an environmentally friendly manner instead of by truck every year. This project shows that the shift from road to rail transport is not only environmentally friendly, but also efficient from a financial point of view, as the VCÖ pointed out. For this major contract fixed for the next 20 years, which is handled by Rail Cargo Austria (RCA), the length of the tracks of the siding in Schönwies was doubled to 600 metres. Via the new, double-deck conveyor belt, the material has been transported over a distance of 500 metres from the gravel plant Starkenbach to the siding underneath the Autobahn A12 and across the Inn river since October 2009. From there, two “heavy” freight trains with a weight of 1,600 tons go from Tyrol to Vorarlberg every day as an environmentally friendly transport. This saved the environment in the region 3.2 million truck kilometres last year.
State-of-the-art loading station - double track length – use of robot locomotives
The extended siding is located directly next to the Westbahn railway line in the Tyrolean Oberland between the railway stations Schönwies and Landeck-Zams, and it was adapted for these special transports. The length of the track system was doubled from 300 to 600 metres in order to enable the setting up of a whole train with up to 18 wagons. The conveyor system which transports the excavated material from the gravel plant in the district of Starkenbach to the industrial siding on the shortest distance underneath the Autobahn A12, across the Inn River, was rebuilt and extended. In total, general manager Thomas Waltle invested approx. six million Euros in the reconstruction of the facilities, where a double-deck conveyor belt is used for supplying the material. In the railway loading station, up to 4,000 tons of material, which are loaded directly in the special wagons of Rail Cargo Austria via a conveyor belt, are stored for the loading of the trains. A robot locomotive controlled via radio remote control is used for this purpose. This 50-ton shunting locomotive is controlled via radio communication and is coordinated with scales which weigh the weight of the loading of the wagon. When the maximum load of 64 tons is reached, the next wagon is pushed under the conveyor belt. The loading process for the entire train is completed after only 110 minutes.
Heavy freight trains with a total weight of 1,600 tons from Tyrol to Vorarlberg
Major contracts of this dimension are extremely important especially in times of economic hardship. An efficient concept where whole trains with a uniform freight and a heavy total load run from one corporate siding to the one of the partner operation. Ballast trains of RCA will run between Schönwies and the siding of the company Rhomberg Bau in Dornbirn up to two times every working day from the middle of October onwards. With a total weight of 1,600 tons, ever train is pulled with the maximum possible load. Three Taurus locomotives with a power of almost 30,000 HP are hitched up on every train for the section across the steeply pitched route on the Arlberg with a height of 1,310 metres. Other components of the overall concept are state-of-the-art carriers which are open at the top for easy loading. The raw construction materials are unloaded from every single wagon through two hatches by means of an electric motor in less than 30 seconds.