Planning and scheduling efficient heavy rail track maintenance through a Decision Rules Model

Rui Santos, Paulo Fonseca Teixeira and Antonio Pais Antunes

Research in Transportation Economics, 2015, vol. 54, issue C, 20-32

Abstract: The most advanced preventive maintenance for railway track relies strongly on inspection and deterioration assessment to provide a given prediction for a maintenance need. Maintenance of track sections is then decided based on long-term planning for an extended track life and on short-term scheduling, combining maintenance tasks, to reduce the number of track possessions. In the particular case of track geometry correction (TGC), which requires moving costly heavy equipment and specialized crews working over-night, a large outlay is involved as well as relevant track possession costs. However, to the best of our knowledge, no research has yet addressed a combined tactical and operational analysis over the determinant logistics issue involved in the problem. In this sense, we propose a method to plan and schedule the heavy maintenance interventions for TGC, where both travel costs and number of workdays spent on track are minimized, ensuring at the same time, an adequate quality for the track.

Keywords: Railway infrastructure; Infrastructure management; Maintenance planning; Maintenance scheduling; Heavy maintenance; Track maintenance; Track geometry correction; Track tamping; Track stabilization; Maintenance parameters; Maintenance cycle; Decision rules model; Operational model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L92 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2015.10.022

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