Keywords: railway, track alignment, geometric design, superelevation, minimum radius, waste on rails tracks.

This study, described in this paper, was motivated by the experience gained while researching tracing the FICO was prepared. It is observed that the practice of tracing optimization is not widely applied when the project definition phase is in this guideline station. Motivated by the results achieved by the project team, it was sought to disclose the effects of the adoption of this new concept in the study of the railway line, favoring broader radius and more rectilinear guidelines, which offered satisfactory results with respect to average speed and decreased wastage in rails. In tracing the FICO - Integration Railway Midwest, it was possible to make a reasonable improvement in operational performance and the executive railway, generated by the shortening of 19 km and saving 10 million cubic meters of earthworks. A total of 147 radiuses shorter than 528.916 m were removed, increasing the speed of the composition from a minimum speed of 43 km/h to 53 km/h, which represents a 23% increase in speed curves. According to VALEC, the average cost of deploying a railway is 5 million reais per kilometer, thus optimizing the layout of the FICO resulted in savings of 95 million reais (47.5 million dollars). This may mean indirectly that a project committed to policies more focused on performance will be more economic by saving on maintenance and increase railway life. This allowed us to analyze the influence of radius and ramps on transport capacity and measure the wastage in rails and understand the difficulties involved in the railway operation. There are sufficient data to support the efficacy of the geometry on the viability of the project. There is a necessity for specialized professionals in railway projects and legislation enforcement aimed at improving and expanding the rail system making it more functional and efficient. We need to deepen the practical experiences related here based on research carried out in our country, in order to reflect its climate, topographical and geotechnical reality.

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