Resource-efficient maintenance and renewal strategies via look-up tables

Purpose and goal:

The purpose of the project is to evaluate the resource efficiency of railway maintenance and renewal strategies using maintenance look-up tables. The aim is that the look-up tables can be used by Trafikverket to identify and prioritise maintenance and renewal activities based on their economic efficiency, including environmental effects and other external costs.

Expected results and effects:

The project will result in maintenance look-up tables that can be used to evaluate maintenance and renewal strategies for various parts of the railway network, that is, for parts with different track characteristics, traffic, and maintenance needs. The evaluation tool can be populated with results for parts of railway lines that constitute one or several maintenance contract areas, and thus the results have significant potential to be put into practice.

Approach and implementation:

The project will develop maintenance and renewal look-up tables using both econometric and engineering approaches, combined with life cycle assessments and life cycle cost analyses. Effects of different maintenance and renewal strategies will be estimated for a set of scenarios that are representative for a part of the Iron Ore Line in Sweden.