The Keyway sleeper developed by Voestalpine subsidiary Voetalpine Railway System Nortrak, features a specially-designed ductile plate and pad which is positioned beneath the e-Clip fastener. While standard track with concrete sleepers exhibit a PSI of 7000 the fastening reduces this to 3000 PSI, comparable with the performance of a wooden sleeper. These features allow the sleeper to be mixed with wooden sleepers as they reach the end of their service life enabling fast individual replacement rather than complete track renewal.
Tests of the system took place at Transportation Technology Centre Inc over the past year and Voestalpine will begin installation of 600 sleepers with Metrolinx in Toronto by the end this month. The objective is to replace all of the commuter railway’s wooden sleepers over the next 25 years.
