A High-Speed Railway Transition—An Innovative Solution for a Pleasant Journey

Design and construction of sustainable railways are becoming essential to connect resilient communities; whilst addressing the challenges caused by climate change and achieving global targets for decarbonization. To reach these targets, a modern sustainable and low carbon high-speed railway is required to meet very stringent safety and performance criteria, have longevity, be highly reliable, and provides delightful passengers’ experience. The geotechnical engineer’s involvement is considered paramount during the planning, design, and construction of a homogenous railway track over viaducts, embankments, culverts, cuttings and tunnels, the performance of which is highly dependent on the behaviour of the ground upon which these are founded. This paper presents an overview of the design and construction of high-speed railway transitions adopted in different countries, using national and international standards. The paper also presents an innovative approach based on case studies of high-speed railway track transitions that combined safety, constructability, efficiency, and sustainability. This solution was based on modelling of static and cyclic-dynamic loading conditions, taking in consideration the construction sequence to achieve a smooth transition from earthworks to structures and vice-versa. This solution has been successfully adopted and its high operations performance has been proven in several high-speed railway projects.