Railroads depend on a safe and reliable infrastructure for business conservation, continuity and growth. This is particularly significant with respect to critical infrastructure. The American Society of Civil Engineers defines critical infrastructure as those "systems, facilities and assets so vital that their destruction or incapacitation would have a debilitating impact on national security, the economy or public safety, health or welfare" (Guiding Principles for the Nation's Critical Infrastructure, ASCE, 2009). In a similar manner, critical railway engineering infrastructure may be defined as those communication and signal systems, track and structures that are so vital that their damage or failure would have considerable injurious impact on safety and/or business sustainability and development. Critical infrastructure damage and failures are sometimes the result of unsafe and/or unreliable design, manufacture, construction, maintenance, evaluation and/or operation. However, most critical railway infrastructure impairments and failures are the result of severe external events and forces.
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