ERMEWA,

ACTIVE ACTOR IN REDUCING RAILWAY NOISE 

                                                         

In its determination to place continuous improvement at the core of its business, Ermewa is fully engaged in the cast iron brake blocks replacement on its railcars fleet in order to reduce railway noise pollution in Europe.

To achieve this ambitious objective, Ermewa can rely on the support of the European Union as a second grant agreement was signed in December 2019 after a first one in 2017.

ERMEWA, ACTOR IN REDUCING RAILWAY NOISE AT SOURCE

Railway noise is a significant environmental stake, linked to quality of life and public health, as more citizens live along the tracks and the request for switching transportation from road to rail is strong.

WHERE DOES NOISE POLLUTION COME FROM?

The interaction between wheels and rails is one of the predominant sources of railway noise: this is a “rail system” stake. Rolling noise depends on both the roughness of the wheel surface and the roughness of tracks it is rolling on.

The use of noisy braking system will be banned within most of the Member States of the European Union by the end of 2024.

EUROPEAN UNION: ERMEWA’S FUNDING PARTNER

To reduce noise, Ermewa started 4 years ago to retrofit existing freight wagons equipped with cast iron brake blocks by composite LL brake blocks, homologated for the international transport in the European Union and listed in the European Union Agency for Railways (list of Fully UIC Approved Composite Brake Blocks For International Transport).

The "Connecting Europe Facility" (CEF) instrument has co-funded Ermewa’s action

thanks to 2 subsidies for a total amount of more than 6M€. 

Thanks to these incentives (co-funding), Ermewa will:

-       Be compliant with the European regulation aiming at reducing noise in railways rolling stocks

-       Respect its commitments regarding environmental and sustainable development

A Win-Win partnership !!