A decision support system for track maintenance

摘要

For any railway infrastructure manager, track maintenance is one of the most important tasks to perform. This mission requires a regular follow-up of geometric track quality and monitoring of intervention execution. Among other tools, TIMON, a computer application using track geometry measurements and maintenance operation data, is currently in use in France. This application illustrates the evolution of track quality indicators. We present a possible extension of this tool: a systematic analysis of the available data by applying a stochastic model for the track geometry deterioration is proposed. The use of environmental variables in order to identify the significance of their influence on track degradation is introduced. The stochastic model has two advantages: on the one hand it enables one to take into account the intrinsic variability of the degradation phenomenon and on the other, significant environmental variables are included into the model. The work presented here aims to classify sections of the high-speed railway network with respect to similar degradation behaviour. Two different graphical representations that could ease decision-making are proposed.