Tata Steel, India, announces that is has been awarded the contract to supply highly wear-resistant steel rail for the Crossrail project beneath the heart of London. Rather than traditional methods of heating and cooling, the company has developed a system in which the rail moves through an induction furnace where an electromagnetic field heats the steel to 950°C. The rail is then rapidly cooled by compressed air. The result is steel rail with very low residual stress, which provides greater protection against the risk of rail failure compared to other in-line heat treatment processes.
Steel will be produced at Tata’s Scunthorpe site in the U.K., before being rolled at the company’s Hayange mill in northern France. It has already commenced deliveries to the Crossrail project, and will ultimately supply more than 57 km of its rail. In total, 7000 metric tons of rail will be used to create one of Europe’s largest railway and infrastructure projects.
The Crossrail route will serve 40 stations and travel more than 100 km from Reading and Heathrow in the west, through new twin-bore 21-km tunnels below central London, to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.
Tata Steel has already commenced deliveries to the Crossrail project, and will ultimately supply the project with more than 57 km of its heat treated, wear-resistant rail. In total 7000 metric tons of Tata Steel rail will be used to create one of Europe’s largest railway and infrastructure projects.
During 2015, Crossrail’s major tunnelling works will conclude and the focus will shift towards fit-out and implementing railway systems within the tunnels and stations. Alstom, TSO, and Costain Limited Joint Venture (ATCjv) have been appointed to provide the tunnel fit-out, including track and train power supply, in the central area which extends east under London from the Royal Oak tunnel portal at Paddington.
