Metronet to recycle more track ballast and cut landfill use

London, 5 March 2007: As part of its Green Matters initiative, Metronet, the company renewing two thirds of the London Underground network, is set to massively increase the amount of railway ballast it recycles ( see pictures ).

After about 40 years, sometimes less, ballast loses the engineering properties that hold the track in place. Each year in the course of its track renewal programme Metronet replaces 50 – 100 tonnes of ballast.

New licences covering Metronet's Ruislip and Acton depots, recently negotiated with the Environment Agency, will enable Metronet to increase the volume of ballast it recycles for use as secondary aggregates from 50 to 80 per cent as well as to cut the amount of used ballast sent to landfill from about half to as little as five per cent.

Suzie Bement, Metronet's Environment Manager, said: “This fulfils not only Metronet's internal goals to minimise the amount sent to landfill and maximise the volume recycled, but also meets legal regulations and targets set out by Transport for London, London Underground, the Greater London Authority and the Mayor.”

The new licences follow the development of a Risk Assessment Protocol carried out on behalf of Metronet by engineering and environmental consultants Wardell Armstrong.

The project revealed that ballast used on the London Underground network is less contaminated than that used on the nation rail network.

Paul Taylor, Wardell Armstrong Associate Director, said: “The Tube ballast is subjected to fewer chemicals. The Underground uses electric power not diesel and is not affected by coal and other raw materials carried on the national network. Looking at the ballast more closely, contamination was neither as widespread nor serious as had been thought.”