Enhancing Railway Track Intervention Planning: Accounting for Component Interactions and Evolving Failure Risks

This manuscript proposes a methodology to leverage digitalisation to efficiently generate an overview of required condition-based railway track interventions, possession windows, and expected costs for railway networks at the beginning of the intervention planning process. The consistent and efficie...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hamed Mehranfar, Bryan T. Adey, Saviz Moghtadernejad, Claudia Fecarotti
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Infrastructures
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2412-3811/10/5/126
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849326987242373120
author Hamed Mehranfar
Bryan T. Adey
Saviz Moghtadernejad
Claudia Fecarotti
author_facet Hamed Mehranfar
Bryan T. Adey
Saviz Moghtadernejad
Claudia Fecarotti
author_sort Hamed Mehranfar
collection DOAJ
description This manuscript proposes a methodology to leverage digitalisation to efficiently generate an overview of required condition-based railway track interventions, possession windows, and expected costs for railway networks at the beginning of the intervention planning process. The consistent and efficient generation of such an overview not only helps track managers in their decision-making but also facilitates the discussion among other decision-makers in later phases of the track intervention planning process, including line planners, capacity managers, and project managers. The methodology uses data of different levels of detail, discrete state modelling for uncertain deterioration of components, and component-level intervention strategies. It dynamically updates the condition estimates of components by capturing the interaction between deteriorating components using Bayesian filters. It also estimates the risks associated with different types of potential service losses that may occur due to sudden events using fault trees as a function of time and the condition of components. An implementation of the methodology is conducted for a 25 km regional railway network in Switzerland. The results suggest that the methodology has the potential to help track managers early in the intervention planning process. In addition, it is argued that the methodology will lead to improvements in the efficiency of the planning process, improvements in the scheduling of preventive interventions, and the reduction in corrective intervention costs upon the implementation in a digital environment.
format Article
id doaj-art-209382d281f9444d8d60fe85d2e50c4a
institution Kabale University
issn 2412-3811
language English
publishDate 2025-05-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Infrastructures
spelling doaj-art-209382d281f9444d8d60fe85d2e50c4a2025-08-20T03:47:59ZengMDPI AGInfrastructures2412-38112025-05-0110512610.3390/infrastructures10050126Enhancing Railway Track Intervention Planning: Accounting for Component Interactions and Evolving Failure RisksHamed Mehranfar0Bryan T. Adey1Saviz Moghtadernejad2Claudia Fecarotti3Infrastructure Asset Management, Sihltal Zurich Uetliberg Bahn SZU, 8045 Zürich, SwitzerlandInstitute of Construction and Infrastructure Management, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, SwitzerlandConstruction Research Centre, National Research Council, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6, CanadaDepartment of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5612 Eindhoven, The NetherlandsThis manuscript proposes a methodology to leverage digitalisation to efficiently generate an overview of required condition-based railway track interventions, possession windows, and expected costs for railway networks at the beginning of the intervention planning process. The consistent and efficient generation of such an overview not only helps track managers in their decision-making but also facilitates the discussion among other decision-makers in later phases of the track intervention planning process, including line planners, capacity managers, and project managers. The methodology uses data of different levels of detail, discrete state modelling for uncertain deterioration of components, and component-level intervention strategies. It dynamically updates the condition estimates of components by capturing the interaction between deteriorating components using Bayesian filters. It also estimates the risks associated with different types of potential service losses that may occur due to sudden events using fault trees as a function of time and the condition of components. An implementation of the methodology is conducted for a 25 km regional railway network in Switzerland. The results suggest that the methodology has the potential to help track managers early in the intervention planning process. In addition, it is argued that the methodology will lead to improvements in the efficiency of the planning process, improvements in the scheduling of preventive interventions, and the reduction in corrective intervention costs upon the implementation in a digital environment.https://www.mdpi.com/2412-3811/10/5/126infrastructure managementrailway systemsdigitalisationdeterioration modellingmaintenance planningintervention strategies
spellingShingle Hamed Mehranfar
Bryan T. Adey
Saviz Moghtadernejad
Claudia Fecarotti
Enhancing Railway Track Intervention Planning: Accounting for Component Interactions and Evolving Failure Risks
Infrastructures
infrastructure management
railway systems
digitalisation
deterioration modelling
maintenance planning
intervention strategies
title Enhancing Railway Track Intervention Planning: Accounting for Component Interactions and Evolving Failure Risks
title_full Enhancing Railway Track Intervention Planning: Accounting for Component Interactions and Evolving Failure Risks
title_fullStr Enhancing Railway Track Intervention Planning: Accounting for Component Interactions and Evolving Failure Risks
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing Railway Track Intervention Planning: Accounting for Component Interactions and Evolving Failure Risks
title_short Enhancing Railway Track Intervention Planning: Accounting for Component Interactions and Evolving Failure Risks
title_sort enhancing railway track intervention planning accounting for component interactions and evolving failure risks
topic infrastructure management
railway systems
digitalisation
deterioration modelling
maintenance planning
intervention strategies
url https://www.mdpi.com/2412-3811/10/5/126
work_keys_str_mv AT hamedmehranfar enhancingrailwaytrackinterventionplanningaccountingforcomponentinteractionsandevolvingfailurerisks
AT bryantadey enhancingrailwaytrackinterventionplanningaccountingforcomponentinteractionsandevolvingfailurerisks
AT savizmoghtadernejad enhancingrailwaytrackinterventionplanningaccountingforcomponentinteractionsandevolvingfailurerisks
AT claudiafecarotti enhancingrailwaytrackinterventionplanningaccountingforcomponentinteractionsandevolvingfailurerisks