Managing Railway Fixed Plant

Engineers have experienced difficulty in applying standard project/construction management techniques (e.g., critical path method) to the reconstruction and maintenance of an operating railway. These problems are most acute with respect to work performed by company forces; however, they are encountered in contract construction, design, and developmental projects. Often this experience has led to the conclusion that standard methods are, in fact, inappropriate to the environment of an operating railway. The writers believe this conclusion to be erroneous. The problem lies in the misjudging of, or the inability to, define the problem. This in turn results in the improper application of a management method or in the application of an inappropriate method. The formation of commuter and regional rail agencies, which have a large public-funding basis and have initiated large rehabilitation projects, has sparked a renewed interest in utilizing the appropriate analytical techniques in managing railway engineering efforts. In this paper the primary railway engineering operations are reviewed and a formal categorization is made using a “project management matrix.” This matrix provides a formalism for “problem definition” that will assist engineers in selecting the proper analytical management techniques. Railway construction and design management operations are discussed but not analyzed, since they accommodate the traditional management techniques such as CPM and PERT, which are well covered elsewhere. Two particular operations (maintenance and production) that are not covered in other literature are discussed and evaluated on our management matrix.