An integrated approach to rail maintenance decisions

Rail Operation has been becoming increasingly challenging due to ongoing market liberalization, increasing market regulation, a growing need for international cooperation in technology and maintenance, and the booming demand from resources sector. There is pressure from various stakeholders to increase speed, axle loads, train length and frequency in train operation. This has led to tremendous stress on rail network and created a demand for improvement in maintenance management .Reactive maintenance has continuously been replaced by predictive and condition based maintenance to reduce cost and risks in rail operation. In 2000, the Hatfield accident in UK killed 4 people and injured 34 people and has lead to the cost of £ 733 million (AUD$ 1.73 billion) for repairs and compensations. In 1977, the Granville train disaster in Australia killed 83 people and injured 213 people. These are related to rolling contact fatigue, wear and poor maintenance. This paper focuses on integrated approach to maintenance decisions which includes rail grinding, lubrication, inspection and replacements. Risk based cost benefit model is proposed for optimal maintenance decision. Expected outcome of this approach is to enhance network performance (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety) with better planning and execution of maintenance for reducing costs and risks of rail operation. Outline of this paper as follows: In Section 1, need for integrated maintenance is explained. Section 2 deals with factors affecting rail degradation and provides a framework for integrated maintenance model. Contribution of this paperis discussed in the concluding section.