SEPTA'S Optimizing Track Outage Planning on a Busy Commuter Railroad

摘要

Faced with the need for balancing it's steadily increasing service requirements, finding sufficient time to perform vital maintenance and construction tasks, and improving worker safety, SEPTA has employed a proven way to effectively meet these demands. By carefully developing a program for planning and coordination of multi-disciplined track outages, SEPTA has been able to safely maximize these valuable work windows. Results include reduced customer inconvenience through the need for fewer outages, increased productivity by employing and coordinating multiple in-house work groups that often accommodate additional third-party forces and utility companies, and enforcing Roadway Worker Protection to ensure it all gets done safely. Numerous work groups and activities progressing simultaneously in tight sections of railroad present constant challenges to worker safety and productivity. SEPTA's solution includes developing detailed quick-reference diagrams, specific to each major outage, that helps all personnel involved in these outages understand their place in the schedule as well safety-critical information like power permits and group boundaries within the outage area. This paper will present an overview of SEPTA's track outage program, with emphasis on select quick-reference diagrams from recent projects, and include the challenges, careful planning and coordination involved with making large-scale outages a success.