A 220-metre single-track demonstrator for the Coventry Very Light Rail (CVLR) project has been built, along Greyfriars Road and Queen Victoria Road in Coventry city centre.
The trial represents the first time CVLR鈥檚 innovative modular track form has been embedded within a live urban corridor.
Colas Rail UK began work on 4th February 2025 in and has progressed swiftly to the completion of laying and aligning all ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) slabs and the alignment, welding, and fastening of the grooved rails. With full slab bedding now also complete, the result is a structurally sound and installation-complete track form, ready to accept the CVLR vehicle, the city council said.
Over the coming weeks, the team will finalise the installation of the structural health monitoring system, rail drainage, and rail-to-pavement interface components before embedding rails in asphalt pavement. The team targets completion of the construction phase by early May 2025.
Christopher Micallef, CVLR track programme lead at Coventry City Council, said: 鈥淭his milestone represents a step-change in the technology readiness level of the novel CVLR track system. Having progressed through concept design, laboratory testing, and a series of increasingly complex pilot installations in controlled environments, we are now proving the system in a dense, operational urban corridor for the first time.鈥�
The track alignment was chosen to test real-world challenges typical of busy city centres. It crosses a longitudinal gradient between 1.5% and 3.5%, incorporates a 30-metre radius curve, and applies a continuous cant to facilitate compatibility with existing road geometry.
91黑料网 was undertaken within a strictly constrained corridor, maintaining continuous access across an active junction. Crucially, no full road closures or traffic diversions were required 鈥� a key goal in demonstrating CVLR鈥檚 鈥楲ITE footprint鈥� on the public realm.
The route also interfaces with all primary below-ground services, including water (clean and foul), gas, electricity and telecommunications. The track form鈥檚 shallow 300mm excavation depth and integrated utility access chambers enabled installation without major service relocation 鈥� unlike traditional tram systems.
Colas Rail UK managing director Iain Anderson said: 鈥淭his trial installation demonstrates how innovative rail infrastructure can be delivered in real city environments with minimal disruption. Our teams worked closely with Coventry City Council to adapt to complex site conditions in real time, showing what鈥檚 possible when engineering meets digital responsiveness.鈥�
The CVLR project has adopted technologies that overcome the traditional barriers to light rail deployment in the UK. These include:
- The use of UHPC slabs as the core structural element 鈥� offering exceptional strength at approximately 100 mm thickness. This enables the construction of the track superstructure without requiring the typical concrete foundation.
- A digitally integrated construction platform that ensures rapid design adaptation and data capture.
- A live structural health monitoring system, embedded into the infrastructure, to validate long-term performance in real-world conditions.
Together, these technologies enable a radically simplified, utility-friendly track form that is scalable and repeatable across various urban contexts, it is claimed.
The track section has a high-frequency structural health monitoring system, with strain gauges embedded within the concrete slabs, asphalt strain gauges, accelerometers, pressure sensors, relative movement sensors and AI-enabled camera systems.
This enables engineers to study the infrastructure鈥檚 behaviour under ambient conditions, CVLR vehicle loads, and general road traffic over the short and long term. The data will feed into a digital twin of the track form, allowing predictive modelling, lifecycle assessment and future specification refinement.
![Concept art of the VLR innovation [Image: Coventry City Council]](/assets/news_articles/2025/05/1746774773_concept-art-of-the-vlr-innovation.jpg "Concept art of the VLR innovation [Image: Coventry City Council]")
Another innovation showcased in this phase is using a digital construction management platform, which enables real-time communication of on-site as-built survey data directly to the design team. This capability has proven essential during milling operations, where conditions such as out-of-spec shallow utilities and historic cobblestone layers require fast redesign and decision-making.
The platform also generates a high-resolution, traceable record of the as-built infrastructure, which can be accessed using augmented reality technologies. This enhances transparency, quality assurance and long-term asset management.
Following the completion of the test track, the CVLR vehicle will be brought into Coventry city centre to begin trial running.
Once the trial runs conclude, the site will be returned to regular highway use, but it will continue to serve as a long-term testbed. Regular road traffic will contribute live loading to the track form, providing data to validate the system鈥檚 performance over time.
The plans is that the programme will then progress towards delivering the first integrated transport system utilising the CVLR infrastructure, which will be part of the following primary phase. This work is being delivered as part of a research and development programme funded by the Department for Transport through the West Midlands Combined Authority to create a scalable and sustainable urban transport system for the future.
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