RAIL CRC research has established the suitability of an innovative technique to transform softwood into timber suitable for railway sleepers.

The Rail CRC research project was led by Queensland University of Technology Faculty of Built Environment & Engineering senior lecturer Dr Martin Murray, and has been developed in conjunction with the CRC for Wood Innovations, based at Swinburne University of Technology, near Melbourne.

Rail CRC Project Manager and principal of John Hearsch Consulting, John Hearsch, said the project team had completed a series of tests, which had proved the technical suitability of softwood timber for rail sleepers.

"Using softwood timber for railway sleepers is something that hasn't been applied in Australia previously. The major benefit is the ongoing supply of softwood grown in plantations," Mr Hearsch said.

"The ongoing supply of durable hardwood - generally from old-growth forests - is becoming more and more problematic for the rail industry.

"High volume rail network traffic areas generally now use concrete sleepers, but they are almost double the initial cost of hardwood timber and require a much greater depth of clean ballast under the sleepers.

"This makes them simply not viable for use on the extensive, but more lightly used secondary rail network, predominantly used by the grain industry.

"This project has a lot to do with the survival of the secondary rail network across Australia, particularly in grain-growing areas," Mr Hearsch said.

Mr Hearsch said the CRC for Wood Innovations was carrying out further research into whether the softwood sleepers could be produced to specifications required by the rail industry.

The project also considered a range of other substitute material for the traditional hardwood sleepers, including plantation hardwood and composites.