Cost-Effectiveness of Railway Infrastructure Renewal Maintenance
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 8
Abstract
U.S. Class I railways maintain their infrastructure through a mix of ordinary maintenance and periodic renewal of infrastructure components. Different railways use different proportions of ordinary maintenance and periodic renewal with little consensus as to the best combination. Furthermore, the cost-effectiveness of emphasizing one method over the other has not been analyzed using empirical data. The objective of this research is to investigate the cost-effectiveness of renewal-based maintenance strategies using high-level financial data from industry sources. The results indicate that maintenance strategies that place more weight on renewal result in lower unit maintenance costs, at least within a specified observable range. The results imply that if railroads constrain renewal maintenance to reduce overall capital expenditures, increasing maintenance expenses will more than offset temporary reductions in capital spending.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dr. Carl Nelson, Dr. James Gentry and the reviewers for helpful advice and input on this research.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 132 • Issue 8 • August 2006
Pages: 601 - 608
Copyright
© 2006 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 5, 2004
Accepted: Nov 8, 2005
Published online: Aug 1, 2006
Published in print: Aug 2006
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