Consultation on Consequences of a Ban of Creosote As Wood Preservative

Consultation on consequences of a ban of creosote as wood preservative

Input from Réseau ferré de France, the French rail infrastructure manager.

Introductory remarks

Creosote is used in the rail sector to extend life of wooden sleepers : they last 3 times longer when they are impregnated. We are currently using grade B creosote impregnated wood and are thinking of introducing grade C creosote impregnated material. In France, 21 000 km of tracks are supported by wooden creosote-impregnated sleepers (indigenous wood, mainly oak -92% of our sleepers- and azobe - 8%), from a total of 52 800 km of tracks. All new lines are being built with concrete sleepers.

The issue relates to existing lines, especially those for which maintenance and traffic ambitions are lower. In France we classify lines according to their level of traffic: they go from group 1 (the most trafficked lines) to group 9, following and extending a nomenclature developed by the international union of railways (UIC). Maintenance refers to minor –and often urgent- works on the lines – for instance the replacing of one broken sleeper- that can not be planned way in advance, whereas renewals refer to major works –for instance replacing large sections of sleepers or of tracks- that require long- term planning and time intervals for works. Group1 to group 4 lines are those for which maintenance and renewal ambitions are the highest. On those lines, wooden sleepers are being replaced by concrete sleepers, every time this is possible. As for groups 5 to 9, wooden sleepers are also replaced by concrete sleepers, as regards renewals. When it comes to maintenance operations, old sleepers are replaced by new sleepers of the same type, to avoid mixity in sleepers (see explanation below).

1. Practical and economic consequences of the phasing out of creosote

- The cost to be born by society is huge Current maintenance operations would have to be replaced by renewal operations, since we can not mix sleepers of different natures: according to our experience, mixity alters the geometry of the line and raise safety issues. The phasing out of creosote would therefore significantly reduce time horizon for renewals and raise an economic issue. Current renewal policy for groups 1 to 6 would lead to a complete renewal of those lines within approximately 30 years As for groups 7 to 9, the time horizon is above 100 years.

The pace at which creosote needs to be phased out would therefore strongly impact the economic sustainability of the sector. Renewals’ costs range from 600 000 to 1 million Euros per km of tracks depending on 1) whether we need or not to replace the rail, the ballast and 2) whether we need to close the line during works (1million Euros correspond to “complete” renewal works without the interruption of traffic). These amounts do not take into account the additional costs related to the specific work that need to be done on the tracks to adapt them to concrete sleepers (heightening of the tracks), though.

04/04/2018 - In practice, replacing current maintenance by renewals is just not possible. Current maintenance requires reactivity. Renewals -whatever their scope- require long-term planning and very often, traffic interruption for several weeks, all over the network . This paralysing effect would be socially, economically and commercially speaking not conceivable.

- The recycling and recovering industry is not organized to absorb our passive and active stocks of wooden sleepers; Our passive stocks amount for 47 million wooden sleepers in 2007. Active stocks: each year about 1 million wooden sleepers are removed from the rail network. Half of them are sold to wholesalers, 15% are re-used for maintenance works on low- trafficked lines. We are left with approximately 350 000 sleepers per year that need to be eliminated– at current renewal pace. Increasing this pace would imply the developing of new safe outlets that would not jeopardize our economic sustainability. At this stage of discussions with the waste industry, no safe and economically sustainable alternative can be considered.

2. The alternatives to creosote and creosote-treated wood: availability, advantages and disadvantages, their limits. According to our knowledge, no safe and environmentally-friendly alternative to creosote has been developed so far. While considering possible alternative products, special attention needs to be paid to electric conductivity and mechanical resistance.

Non-impregnated exotic wood can not be considered as an option, both for scarcity and environmental reasons . The most appropriate alternative so far seems to be concrete sleepers. They require the same amount of current maintenance as wooden sleepers and are about the same price, as far as new lines are concerned at least (replacing wooden sleepers by concrete sleepers require additional works to adapt the track to this different technology).

They can not be used on all sections of a line, though: on sections where there are switches and crossings (42500 in total on the French network), in some tunnels, in stations, in narrow curves, on bullhead railed tracks we can not put anything else but wooden sleepers. These sections total a number of kilometres that are not insignificant, although not accurately assessed.

In a life-cycle approach one should take into account the environmental properties of wooden sleepers versus other types of material – since wood is a natural store for CO2.

Contact person : Claire Pardo, European affairs expert Direction of strategy, Strategy unit [email protected] Tel: 01 53 94 30 23

04/04/2018