Recent Diagnostic Methods for Railway Tracks

Abstract

The railway track must ensure safe railway transport with the maximum speed and axle load that can be applied to the track. Hungarian railway infrastructure managers (eg. MÁV, GYSEV) are spending large amount of money on railway superstructure and substructure diagnostics and on network analysis based on diagnostic results. Taking into account the results of the measurements, repairs of local defects that pose a direct threat, as well as the planning of comprehensive reconstructions are carried out. This article reviews the railway track diagnostic methods used (or to be applied in the near future) in Hungary, based on the results of which military and civil accident prevention analyses can be made.