Design & Capture for Railways
Provide the required accuracy to ensure successful designs and efficiently manage surveying data with powerful, user-friendly rail solutions.
Efficient data collection putting the project on track
Equipped with surveying solutions, surveyors collect data quickly and accurately so designers can create optimal railway alignments and design safe, reliable and cost-effective railway systems.
Our best-in-class total stations, GNSS sensors, field and office software and reality capture surveying solutions satisfy the demanding standards for railway design. Collect data rapidly and safely to measure and analyse terrain, existing structures, and other features that impact railway design.
Provide the most accurate data and digital models for railway design teams above and below ground
Using surveying tools that accurately capture and visualise terrain, locate underground utilities, and identify subsurface conditions, surveyors provide the information engineers and designers need for detailed railway designs, including tracks, bridges, tunnels, and stations.
Our solutions help you create topographic surveys, underground utility surveys, documenting property ownership along the rail corridor, and 3D models to understand site conditions and visualise information about the site’s terrain, elevations, and features. Provide deliverables that help ensure the track, structures, and other components are constructed correctly, meet safety standards, and function properly.
Increase safety and reduce time spent on track
Digital twins can significantly reduce the time and effort required for fieldwork and allow staff to focus on other tasks while allowing engineers and managers to access complete and up-to-date data about the condition of the existing environment without physically visiting the site.
Our mobile mapping systems and terrestrial laser scanning solutions allow surveyors to create a Smart Digital Reality or digital twin of a rail environment enabling virtual simulations, quicker and safer decision-making, and improved communication between field workers and other teams. Whether you design a new or existing track, knowing the exact location and condition of all assets before construction starts will increase your efficiency by reducing downtime and contributing to site safety.
Discover our solutions for the design & capture of railways
Establish high-quality survey control
The most accurate total stations, reliable GNSS, and field software
Leica Geosystems provides a complete portfolio of highest accuracy total stations and GNSS solutions to ensure that railway projects start with the most accurate control. Leica Captivate software delivers rigorous results in the field to ensure confidence before leaving the site.
Industry-leading accuracy with Leica Geosystems digital levels
Leica Geosystems’ digital levels provide industry-leading accuracy levelling. With image-assisted aiming and autofocus, efficiency is maximised and user fatigue is minimised. Onboard applications ensure that results can be verified onsite to avoid costly revisits.
Perform rigorous network adjustment with Leica Infinity or MicroSurvey STAR*NET
Once data collection is completed for the site control network, final coordinates are delivered after a network adjustment. Both Leica Infinity and MicroSurvey STAR*NET are designed to integrate measurements from all sensors to provide adjustment. Adjusted coordinates can be shared with field teams via GeoCloud Drive, powered by HxDR or directly uploaded for onsite use.
Capture accurate and complete digital twins for railway design
Point-by-point survey to meet the highest accuracy
Capturing detailed site conditions is essential to create accurate designs before progressing with construction activities. Maximise efficiency with the Leica TS16 and the Leica AP20 AutoPole or capture images with visual positioning with Leica GS18 I and create a point cloud in Leica Infinity. With Leica Captivate field software, you can capture all point and line features in the field to ensure minimal post-processing in the office and create deliverables ready for design activities to begin.
Laser scanning for safety and efficiency
When long-range scanning is required at a safe distance, the Leica ScanStation P-Series delivers high-quality 3D data, collects up to 1 million points per second, and ranges up to 1 km. For higher efficiency and speed, the Leica RTC360 3D laser scanner has a measuring range of up to 130 metres and a scanning rate of up to two million points per second. Point clouds from laser scanning provide a detailed digital twin that allows railway design to begin with confidence.
Mobile mapping with the highest efficiency and safety
Mobile mapping systems offer a highly efficient solution for creating digital twins for railway design and helping the operations and maintenance teams make informed decisions about their assets. Installed on a rail-mounted vehicle, the Leica Pegasus TRK solution captures the trajectory, 3D laser scan point could with georeferenced imagery and additional 360 stitching-free images to create a digital twin of the track and the surrounding infrastructure. Rapid data collection is guaranteed with capture speed up to 130 km/h. With single-person operation of hardware and software as well as onboard data processing, the Leica Pegasus TRK empowers you to capture data efficiently over very long distances compared to conventional surveying techniques. Once data is captured, it is processed with Leica Cyclone Pegasus OFFICE enabling you to create high-value deliverables properly configured to the standards demanded by the railway authorities.
Locate underground utilities
Superior productivity in underground surveys with Stream DP
Safety is paramount in construction, and knowing everything about the site before beginning construction is essential to ensure safety. Stream DP is the revolutionary multichannel Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) array solution for real-time 3D mapping of underground utilities and features that overturns the state-of-the-art in underground surveys. The Stream DP ground penetrating radar system by IDS GeoRadar uses the new Equalised scrambled Technology (EsT) to detect underground assets at greater depths than other solutions. This solution improves detection efficiency and provides non-stop performance for locating underground utilities.
Visualise and collaborate effectively
Collect, process, visualise, and review
Leica Infinity is a central hub that merges and processes data from various sensors working in a common reference frame for visualisation, review and data exchange, providing tools to import design data from industry-leading design formats. The design can be reviewed, and quality checked before being prepared and sent directly to Leica Captivate with GeoCloud Drive, powered by HxDR or Leica ConX cloud services.
Unlock deeper insights for your rail projects
HxGN Content Program is the world’s largest database of consistent, high-resolution aerial imagery, elevation data, 3D models, and analytics across the United States and Europe. The unprecedented quality is an ideal base for machine learning and AI applications to extract features and classify objects. The airborne imagery is available in 15 cm resolution in urban areas and 30 cm in wide areas. Clear cloud-free professional-grade imagery streamed or downloaded can be used for your initial design, planning, and assessing project feasibility.