SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Metrotenerife, a company 100% owned by the Cabildo de Tenerife and chaired by Enrique Arriaga (Cs), has been awarded in the ‘Global Light Rail Awards’, the most prestigious awards in the railway industry.
At the award ceremony, held in London, Arriaga received the first prize corresponding to the category ‘Technical Innovation of the Year’, for the device ‘Removable insulating jacket for throat rail’, designed and patented by Metrotenerife.
Arriaga explains in a note that “the jury valued the design of this innovative device that offers electrical and acoustic insulation and also allows the replacement of the lane in a reduced time and without the need to carry out demolition works and replacement of track liners” .
The island councilor has confessed to being “very proud” to receive this award because it certifies the “great work” carried out by the company’s employees, “worthy of being copied by other companies in the sector.”
In his opinion, the award “represents a total recognition of the capacity for creation and innovation that has always characterized Metrotenerife”.
The insular director of Mobility, José Alberto León, who also attended the awards ceremony, emphasizes that “this recognition is not the result of chance, but of the effort carried out by the company to offer each day a better service to the citizenry, and that also implies investigating and creating “.
Likewise, the Metrotenerife project team made up of Raúl Parra, Pablo Oromí and Teresa Benet was present at the award ceremony.
The device ‘Removable insulating jacket for throat rail’ was also nominated in three other categories: Best Environmental and Sustainability Initiative, Project of the Year and Exceptional Engineering Achievement, which is a recognition of the work that Metrotenerife has been doing in the creation and design of new devices and technical tools to improve different aspects in the railway industry and in public transport.
REMOVABLE RAIL JACKET
The ‘Global Light Rail Awards’ are organized each year by Mainspring, a relevant publishing company in the railway world, and represent one of the greatest recognitions of excellence and innovation in this sector.
Metrotenerife began to develop and design, in 2016, the ‘Removable Insulating Jacket for Throat Rail’, an engineered solution to facilitate, among other things, rail removal and replacement.
This device has already been installed on the Tenerife tram platform, with excellent results, and is now in the process of international commercialization.
In this sense, throughout this time, the device has aroused the interest of operators and technicians in various sectoral meetings, for being a sustainable solution for urban lines.
Due to its characteristics, it does not require works for the replacement of the rails, which allows reducing time and costs in materials and maintenance; by being placed on both sides of the lane, it provides electrical and acoustic insulation of the lane; It is an element compatible with a variety of coatings and fasteners, and at the same time it is compatible with road crossings because it correctly supports the passage of road traffic.
On the other hand, the jacket is manufactured based on a conglomerate of recycled rubber from tires, so it provides added value in defense of the environment.
In 2018 ‘Removable insulating jacket for throat rail’ already obtained the patent certifications of the offices of Spain and Europe.
SPECIAL JURY AWARD
The ‘Global Light Rail Awards’ have also awarded the Special Jury Prize, for his extensive career in the railway sector, to Andrés Muñoz de Dios, who was manager of Metrotenerife until last August.
With this award, the promotion of transport on the island of Tenerife that he carried out stands out, as well as his presence in the international arena, having served as vice president and as president of the Light Rail Commission of the International Union of Public Transport (UITP).
This is not the first time that Metrotenerife has achieved this type of recognition, since in past editions of these international awards the company has been awarded for other products developed by the entity itself.
Thus, in 2017 it was awarded second prize in the Significant Safety Innovation category by SIMOVE (on-board speed monitoring system) and in 2018 by the Ten + VAO application in the ‘Best Environmental Initiative’ and ‘Sustainability’ sections and ‘Vision of the Year’.
