Systems Approach to the Organization of Locomotive Maintenance on Ukraine Railways

A basic criterion of locomotive maintenance system optimization in rail transport is the ability to provide the required volume of transportation and safety at the lowest cost. Early investigations into locomotive maintenance did not touch on problems encountered in modern rail engineering. Within the context of railway reform efforts in Ukraine, this has highlighted the practical necessity of actually making optimization of the locomotive maintenance system the top priority. The reforms carried out on Ukraine’s rail transport system include considerable changes, both qualitative and quantitative, in locomotive repair plants, their rearrangement by certain criteria to distinguish between repair and maintenance, and the formation of repair clusters oriented to service a certain type of locomotive operating on a certain rail site. The current study deals with the development of a virtual maintenance, service and repair system for rolling stock which takes into account the type of locomotive, state of repair depots and plants, and a method for assessing the organizational and technical level of a locomotive repair plant.