Railway Materials Tending to be Increasingly Environment-Conscious
Taro TSUJIMURA
It is essential to reduce the environmental impact of railway, to make the railways more environmentally conscious. LCA, Life Cycle Assessment, was advocated as a tool to measure the environmental damage inflicted by industries, but it has not been established. We attempt to apply this method positively to railway area in identifying the relevent issues and problems. At this moment, it is obvious that the materials for railways must be harmless, easy to recycle, long-life and lightweight. To boost the effect of reducing the environmental impact of railway, not only material improvement, but also systematic designing is vitally important.