Recent Australian Developments in Fibre Composite Railway Sleepers

Abstract

Despite a range of environmental concerns, railway companies worldwide continue to use timber sleepers to maintain their existing timber lines. In recent years reinforced polymer sleepers have emerged as a potential alternative but because of their high price their uptake has been very slow. In Australia a number of exciting new developments in reinforced polymer sleepers have recently been introduced into the market place by Carbonloc Pty Ltd, a spin-off company of the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba. This paper will discuss the details of these new polymer sleepers and compare their performance to the polymer sleepers that have been available in the market for some time.