Optimising the strategy of track maintenance

摘要

For any railway infrastructure manager, track maintenance is one of the most expensive tasks to perform, therefore it is essential for this to be carried out in an optimal way. The optimum is mainly defined in terms of costs, however safety aspects are very important. Comfort aspects as well as logistic issues constitute additional constraints. This study concerns track geometry indicators which reveal the quality of the track. The SNCF track geometry measurements that are analysed have been recorded since the opening of the high speed tracks. Probabilistic models for degradation and intervention efficiency are combined in a global model of track maintenance costs, that is optimised according to inspection steps and intervention levels. Optimum values for these two parameters are then derived, and from a first analysis, appear to be reasonable.