Light rail and tram traffic present significant advantages in a heavy populated urban environment in terms of quality of service, volume of passengers, delays etc. Rail vehicles in interaction with a railway structure, however, can induce vibrations that are propagating to surrounding structures and cause noise disturbance in the surrounding areas. Since tram tracks often share the running surface with road vehicles it is also of most importance to construct long lasting and low maintenance structures in short traffic closure periods foreseen for these activities. Tram system forms a backbone of public transport in the City of Zagreb. In the last decade, its fleet has been renewed by 142 new low-floor trams. Shortly after their introduction, it was observed that they have a negative impact on the exploitation behaviour of tram infrastructure, primarily on the durability of rail fastening systems. To tackle this challenge, improvements to the standard fastening systems on Zagreb tram network have been proposed. New fastening systems 21-CTT and 2 21-STT have been installed for testing purpose in Savska street in Zagreb on a 150 m long test section, along with the referent test section of standard ZET fastening system PPE (fastening system with enhanced resilience). Paper presents an overview of the newly implemented fastening systems, their implementation on a test section in Savska street, as well as measurements and analysis of strain in RC slab and rail vibrations driven by tram pass-by.

tram track; 21-STT; 21-CTT; vibrations; strain