Soundim Oy
The Future of Railway Noise Reduction
- This article first appeared in the Railway-News magazine Issue 1 2022.
Soundim offers rail companies a low-height barrier that reduces railway noise without restricting passenger views.
Soundim is a Finnish company that has developed an innovative noise barrier solution for the rail industry. The idea for the solution first came from the Finnish Rail Administration (RHK) which, in 2009, published a report on the use of low-level barriers in combating rail noise. Soundim’s founders took the findings of this report and began to design a solution that would meet the rail industry’s unique requirements.
A Low-Height, Low- Cost, Noise Barrier for the Rail Industry
The company was officially established in 2012, the same year as its first test installation, when 60 metres of Soundim railway noise barriers were put into place near Helsinki. Since then, the company has installed a further 2.2 kilometres along the Helsinki Circle Line in addition to multiple projects across Finland, including Tampere and Järvenpää.
It has also begun completing export orders – the first of which was for 600m of barriers near St Petersburg, Russia.
Blocking Noise at the Source
Most of the noise created by trains travelling at speeds of 200km/h or lower comes from the wheels and rails, which means
sound barriers don’t need to be high in order to lower noise pollution in the surrounding area.
