'As long as we act rationally, we should not fear technological progress', says Andrés López Pita, Professor of Railway Studies at the University of Catalunya, in his conclusion to this study of track design for high speed lines.
To mark the separation of railway infrastructure and train operations in the Basque region, local infrastructure manager Euskal Trenbide Sarea organised an international forum in Bilbao last year, for which López Pita se rved as technical co-ordinator.
ETS plans to make the forum an annual event, 'with a view to promoting greater technical and technological awareness' of railway infrastructure issues and disseminating information about their application to strategic projects, according to Executive Vice-President Javier Carlos de Bergara.
This lavishly-illustrated book brings together in Basque, Spanish and English the principal presentations from the first forum, which traces the development of high speed railways over the past 40 years before looking at the construction of high speed track in detail. The papers by experts from several different countries discuss in detail the design and application of both ballasted and ballastless trackforms on projects ranging from Japan's Shinkansen to HSL-Zuid and the Lötschberg base tunnel.
BI-3720-07Euskal Trenbide Sarea,Santiago de Compostela 12-5a planta48003 Bilbao, Spainets@ets-rfv.es
