Optimisation model to schedule railway track renewal operations: a life-cycle cost approach

Abstract

Besides high initial construction costs, ballasted railway tracks also have high investment requirements, related to maintenance and renewal (M&R) works. Decision support tools for railway track components that optimise these works are increasingly gaining in importance. This paper presents an optimisation model that integrates ballast, rail and sleeper degradation models in a mixed integer linear programming model. This model links the decisions to renew these components with their condition and takes advantage of the integrated planning of renewal works to minimise the railway track life-cycle cost (LCC). The practical utility of the model is illustrated with a case study involving the Portuguese Lisbon–Porto line. The results indicate a reduction in track renewal cost if the grouping of components, track segments and time interval for renewal operations are optimised. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates that possible annual budget restrictions for railway track M&R operations can have an important influence on the railway track LCC.

Keywords::

• railway track
• opportunistic renewal scheduling
• life-cycle cost assessment
• optimisation

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Portuguese Railway Infrastructure Manager, REFER, E.P.E., for its support and cooperation. The support of MIT Portugal is also gratefully acknowledged. The software company FICO has also provided support by making available the Xpress 7.2 license.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT [grant number: PTDC/SENTRA/112975/2009].