Improvement of Railway Maintenance Approach by Developing a New Railway Condition Index

Railway track maintenance management systems are currently based on track geometry indexes with the aim of achieving the required level of track safety. Track passenger ride comfort (PRC) has not been taken into account in the current track maintenance methods, making the effectiveness of the conventional approach questionable particularly with the new generation of high-speed railway tracks. The rapid development of high-speed tracks throughout the world, which increases the importance of the track PRC, has created an urgent need for the consideration of PRC in the maintenance of railways. This paper develops a new railway track conditions index which takes into account PRC. Development of the new index is performed based on statistical analyses of the results obtained from extensive field studies. Using of the new index, the current maintenance approach is improved by developing a new algorithm for prioritizing and scheduling maintenance activities. The advantages of the new maintenance approach are illustrated by comparisons of its outputs with those of the current approach. It is shown that the new proposed maintenance algorithm ensures not only the track safety but also the required level of PRC. (C) 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.