A STEEL company has installed a new type of railway track in a bid to reduce the noise of trains by up to 50 per cent at one of the UK’s busiest stations.

Tata Steel, which has about 1,500 workers in the North- East, put the country’s first SilentTrack in place at Blackfriars station in London.

The track was developed by Tata’s British scientists and engineers and will reduce rail traffic noise in and around the station by up to a half.

It uses patented dampers of steel encased in rubber attached to the sides of the track to absorb vibration in the rail as the train moves over it, and are tailored to each individual railway.

The installation of fourfifths of a mile of the track is part of the Thameslink Programme – a major project that aims to provide more frequent and longer trains and big improvements to three central London stations. The project is due to be completed in 2018.

David Benton, one of the Tata Steel engineers who developed the SilentTrack technology, said: “Every form of railway track design responds differently as trains pass over it, so the noise produced has a different frequency spectrum.

“We analyse the track characteristics and ensure the damper is configured to absorb vibration at the frequencies that are producing the greatest sound power.”

SilentTrack, which was developed with Southampton University, has undergone extensive testing to ensure it does not interfere with railway operation or maintenance.

More than 90 miles of SilentTrack has already been installed worldwide, including Sydney, Australia, Oslo, Norway, and the Rhine Valley, Germany.