Reliable, Effective, and Sustainable Urban Railways: A Model for Optimal Planning and Asset Management
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 146, Issue 6
Abstract
Urban railways play a critical role in the daily life of citizens. However, extensive deterioration of mostly aged systems complicates the management of this type of infrastructure in coping with increased demand and restricted upgrade and renewal budgets. The main objective of this research is to develop a comprehensive network-level decision-making model for managing urban railway systems to maintain the highest level of performance, reliability, and convenience in the movement of passengers in a metropolitan area. By considering ridership fluctuations and network expansion scenarios, the proposed model integrates the current and expected future usage rates into the decision-making process. The Montreal metro system was considered as a real-world case study. The results indicate that proactive maintenance scheduling can save up to 25% of the cumulative expenditure during a 20-year horizon while improving the overall performance of the system. Comparing the decisions proposed by the model and the government plan for this network presents an opportunity to understand current railway asset management practices. The proposed model is applicable to rail rapid transit (underground and surface), light rail transit, and suburban trains as well as bus rapid transit and guides maintenance, upgrade, and expansion of these systems, targeting improvements in their convenience, reliability, and ridership.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available in a repository online (STM 2019) in accordance with funder data retention policies.
Acknowledgments
This research has been supported by the Fonds de recherche du Québec—Nature et technologies (FRQNT).
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Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 146 • Issue 6 • June 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 26, 2019
Accepted: Nov 27, 2019
Published online: Apr 2, 2020
Published in print: Jun 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Sep 2, 2020
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