Strategic Model to Optimize Railway-Track Renewal Operations at a Network Level
Publication: Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 22, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper presents an optimization model for scheduling railway ballast, rail, and sleeper renewal operations at a network level. The objective of the model is to minimize the expected railway track life-cycle cost (LCC) and track unavailability costs derived from user impacts caused by traffic disruption during track renewal operations. To minimize costs, the model assesses the opportunistic renewal of railway track components and takes advantage of planning from a network perspective to study the possibility of reusing track components on different lines. The practical utility of the model is illustrated with a case study involving the Portuguese railway network. The results indicate that user costs have an important influence on decision making in the track renewal process and that the network perspective of renewal planning can reduce the direct costs of these operations.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Portuguese Railway Infrastructure Manager, REFER, E.P.E., for its support and cooperation and Henrique Oliveira from Brisa Engenharia e Gestão (BEG) for sharing his knowledge of the Lisbon-Porto line renewal project. The support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT (Project Reference PTDC/SENTRA/112975/2009), and MIT Portugal is also gratefully acknowledged. Thanks also to the software company FICO for providing the Xpress 7.2 license.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 22 • Issue 2 • June 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 23, 2015
Accepted: Nov 4, 2015
Published online: Jan 20, 2016
Published in print: Jun 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Jun 20, 2016
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