A Life Cycle Approach in Railway Design and Maintenance: Opportunities and Obstacles

Infrastructure managers increasingly have to deliver to defined performance levels (e.g. RAMS and life cycle costs). Because rail infrastructure consists of expensive components which have long life spans, it is important to review the cost and performance impacts of decisions during the remaining life span of the components. Such a systematic analysis of long-term, system-wide impacts should make it possible to justify investments in particular, “optimal” designs and maintenance regimes. In practice, tools, data and knowledge required for estimating long-term maintenance impacts are still relatively absent in the European rail sector. This paper describes an approach, which provides quantitative support in the review of design and maintenance strategies in settings where empirical maintenance data are not readily available. A decision support system named Life Cycle Cost Plan is used for the purpose. The impacts of the approach are discussed, using one example case study and the results from ex-post evaluation interviews with stakeholders from three case studies. Success was realized, but, on the other hand, organizational barriers were found, which can hinder the implementation of more life-cycle-based design and maintenance strategies.