News Release 2023

The Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI), the Land Transport Authority (LTA), and the MTR Corporation Ltd. (MTR) held an information exchange forum online on December 7, 2023. The forum was attended by 18 people from the RTRI, including Dr. Atsushi Furukawa, Executive Director of the Railway Technical Research Institute, 47 people from the LTA, including Mr. Leong Kwok Weng, Chief Engineer (Systems), and 48 people from the MTR, including Ms. Sha Wong, Head of E&M Engineering.

The Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) developed Wooden Sleeper Deterioration Evaluation System based on a deep learning technique that uses images captured with a video camera installed on the front window of the leading car of a train running on, e.g., a commercial line. The system can automatically determine the degree of deterioration of wooden sleepers such as corrosion and cracking (Fig. 1). The system will enable wooden sleeper conditions to be determined even if track maintenance engineers do not go to the site and improve efficiency in determining the degree of deterioration of wooden sleepers, including increasing inspection speed, and saving labour and costs.

The Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) and the National Science and Technology Development Agency of Thailand (NSTDA) co-hosted Railway Technology Forum for strengthening mutual technical collaboration between the two parties on November 22, 2023, at Thailand Science Park in the suburbs of Bangkok. The forum was attended by five people from the RTRI and approximately fifty people from Thailand, including Dr. Asira Fuongfuchat, Deputy Executive Director of the NSTDA.

Mr. Kiyotaka Seki was presented with the 2023 Award for Industrial Standardization Contributor, given by the Minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The award ceremony was held on October 17, 2023, in Tokyo.

The Railway Technical Research Institute established the Railway International Standards Center (RISC) and has been promoting development of international standards for railway technologies together with member organizations of RISC.
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has issued JP-Led international standards on “IEC 62973-5 applied to lithium-ion batteries for auxiliary power supply systems used on rolling stock”. RISC will continue making efforts to develop international standards for the technologies in which Japan has an advantage.

The Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) finally completed the development of a steam weeding technique using a steam weeding equipment (Fig. 1) which efficiently withers weeds with steam. The equipment has newly developed handheld nozzles combined with a general-purpose steam cleaner. Efficient use of this steam weeding technique enables effective weed control, with less time and fewer workers required for weeding work, and with the number of annual cleaning work reduced due to delayed weed regrowth, as compared to conventional weeding technique using the bush cutter.

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Ryuichi Yamamoto of the Railway Technical Research Institute has been awarded the ISO Excellence Award by ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) for his contributions to the development of the world’s first international standard for rail welding.

The Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) established the Railway International Standards Center (RISC) and engages in international standardization activities while cooperating with other organization members to promote international standardization in the railway sector.

RTRI Developed an effective seismic retrofit measure for steel bridges in a narrow space, a device to prevent collapses of bridges with vibration control mechanism (Fig.1). This device prevents collapses of bridges in a large earthquake and reduces displacement of the bridge beam. This device can be mounted to locations where there is only narrow space under the bridge or around the bridge column.

RTRI Developed a Program to Predict Frost Formation on the contact wire (Fig.1) to accurately predict frost formation on the contact wire on the early winter morning based on the weather data along the railway line. This program will be useful to efficiently implement measures to prevent frost formation on the contact wire.