Acoustic effectiveness of damped wheels and impact on life-cycle cost of different typologies of passenger trains

Railway noise reduction at the source is the preferred way indicated by the European legislator, although certainly the hardest to be obtained from an engineering point of view. A cost-benefit analysis of the available solutions should drive the political decisions. This paper describes the impact of a specific low noise wheel, whose noise reduction effect was proven in normal service, on the Life-Cycle Cost of different types of vehicles. The analysis is conducted on several types of passenger rolling stock, i.e. high speed trains, both conventional and tilting, Electrical and Diesel Multiple Units. All direct and indirect costs associated with this kind of damped wheel are taken into account during the entire life cycle of the vehicle.