Life cycle cost estimation of railway track sytem

• Railway track is the most maintained component in any rail infrastructure. Study shows a lot of money has been spent annually for better maintenance of track world wide and eventually Life Cycle Cost for the track goes very high. Manufacturers and service providers for the track system are trying hard to bring down the LCC cost and at the same time keeping the risk involved to it as low as possible. It has been seen that maintenance and operation cost always takes a major share of any LCC analysis. In this paper the authors have attempted to describe the methods to reduce the operation and maintenance cost and hence optimise the LCC with low risk involved. Railway track system consists of major components like rail, turnout, crosstie etc. Each part needs equal attention in terms of maintenance and cost. In a broad sense low maintenance and operation cost always accounts for high reliability, proper maintenance planning and scheduling, proper main power allocation and low spare part cost. The current paper focuses on finding methods to life period determination of the track, proper scheduling of preventive maintenance/overhauling, man power allocation for maintenance, spare parts quantity determination for all the major parts of the railway track system. Eventually the authors have tried to develop software which will determine the above mentioned parameters and hence calculate the Life Cycle Cost for the track system. The software will also help in determining the critical component(s) in the track system which need(s) more attention as far as LCC is concerned.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Annan samhällsbyggnadsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Other Civil Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Drift och underhållsteknik

Operation and Maintenance

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)