Modern Railway Infrastructure Asset Management

Stasha Jovanovic

Executive Manager - Asset Management

MER MEC S.p.A., Italy

Keywords: Railway, Infrastructure, Condition-Monitoring,

Asset-Management, Maintenance.

Abstract

The Paper discusses various Condition-monitoring techniques

and their optimal utilization for Railway Infrastructure Asset

Management Systems (RI-AMS) purposes, as well as main RI

AMS sub-systems and activities they are supposed to handle.

1 Introduction

Complexity of today’s railway sector imposes high and often

conflicting demands on Rail Infrastructure Managers. The

shear vastness of Railway Networks requires advanced tools

and methods to aid humans in managing them efficiently.

This problem necessitated in the recent years the introduction

and application of Railway Infrastructure Asset Management

Systems (RI-AMS). Knowing that the condition-based

approach was undoubtedly by far the most efficient existing

approach to maintenance engineering, modern RI-AMS are

almost entirely based on collecting, processing and utilizing

asset-condition data. This clearly made Railway Infrastructure

Condition-Monitoring the single most important building-

block of any RI-AMS, because the overall managing

capabilities of RI-AMS will greatly depend on the quality of

the available Monitoring systems and data they produce.

The purpose of monitoring is usually twofold. The first,

immediate reason is obviously the detection of the

irregularities that could endanger safety and reliability of the

railway traffic. However, in addition to this, if a monitoring

technique is continuous and fast enough to allow consecutive

monitoring runs to be performed in regular time intervals, an

extremely important temporal aspect is obtained which is of

essential importance for a successful condition-based asset

management. This means, that such monitoring techniques

can provide detailed insight into the infrastructure assets’

behavior over time, enabling condition-forecasting and

consequent maintenance & renewal (M&R) planning. This

concept effectively represents the ultimate goal of any

Condition Monitoring as well as that of the entire Railway

Infrastructure Asset Management as a whole.

2 Railway Infrastructure Condition Monitoring

& Analysis

All activities related to the asset diagnostics, condition

analysis, planning and consequent execution of maintenance

and/or renewal works can be structured in the so-called

condition-based maintenance chain. The condition-based

maintenance chain is traditionally composed by the following

main phases (illustrated in Figure 1):

• Monitoring, surveys made by either measuring vehicles

or other inspection systems that produce diagnostic data.

• Analysis, the necessary processing, data storage for

future usage and visualization of diagnostic data.

• Warning/Alerts Generation, the generation of

information like defects, quality indexes, alerts, etc. to be

used for maintenance purposes.

• Planning, the production of M&R plans to optimize.

• Optimization, the optimization of the M&R plans to

choose a final one to schedule.

• Scheduling and Execution, the final phases oriented at

the resource allocation and works execution.

• Management, the final global control of overall

performances of the maintenance process.

• KPIs

• Efficiency

• Efficacy

Monitoring Data

Analysis

Alert

generation

ExecutionScheduling

Measurements/

Ispections/

Critical Defects

•Measure of: Track, Rail, Ballast,

Overhead Line, Switches & Crossing, etc.

• Critical defects Detection

Structured Data

• Single and cross/multiple

parameter analysis

Alerts/Defects

• Quality Index Calculation

• Defects List Generation

• Issuing Alerts

• Issuing Work Orders

• Allocating

Resources

•Closing out the Work Order with technical (location, …) and

economical (labor hours) information

Building Work History

Activities

Object

Results

Maintenance and Renewal (M&R) WorksDefects

Scenarios

Planning

• Degradation Speed and Work History Analysis

• Clustering of

Works

• Production ofScenarios

Optimisation

OptimisedScenario

•Checking Line Availability and Resources

• Setting

Priorities

Control

M&R Actionsand Policy Change

Scheduled Work Order

Measuring and Video Inspection Systems

Asset ManintenaceManagement Systems

Systems

Decision Support Systems

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) / Enterprise AssetManagement (EAM)

&

•Validation and localization of data

• KPIs

• Efficiency

• Efficacy

Monitoring Data

Analysis

Alert

generation

ExecutionScheduling

Measurements/

Ispections/

Critical Defects

•Measure of: Track, Rail, Ballast,

Overhead Line, Switches & Crossing, etc.

• Critical defects Detection

Structured Data

• Single and cross/multiple

parameter analysis

Alerts/Defects

• Quality Index Calculation

• Defects List Generation

• Issuing Alerts

• Issuing Work Orders

• Allocating

Resources

•Closing out the Work Order with technical (location, …) and

economical (labor hours) information

Building Work History

Activities

Object

Results

Maintenance and Renewal (M&R) WorksDefects

Scenarios

Planning

• Degradation Speed and Work History Analysis

• Clustering of

Works

• Production ofScenarios

Optimisation

OptimisedScenario

•Checking Line Availability and Resources

• Setting

Priorities

Control

M&R Actionsand Policy Change

Scheduled Work Order

Measuring and Video Inspection Systems

Asset ManintenaceManagement Systems

Systems

Decision Support Systems

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) / Enterprise AssetManagement (EAM)

&

•Validation and localization of data

Figure 1: Condition-Based Maintenance Chain

Today, railway infrastructure/maintenance managers are

faced with the problem of implementing the condition-based

maintenance chain with a cost-effective solution taking

advantage of the latest technologies. As illustrated in Figure 2

infrastructure includes many assets such as track, overhead

line, S&C, civil-engineering structures, etc. that can be

maintained with a support of many systems, adopting several

policies such as corrective, preventive, predictive, risk-based

and others.

……

TrackTrack

Overhead LineOverhead Line

TelecommunicationsTelecommunications

SignallingSignalling

CyclicCyclic

Measuring Systems for Track, Overheard line and

Vehicle Dynamics

Measuring Systems for Track, Overheard line and Vehicle Dynamics

SoilSoil

BridgesBridges

PredictivePredictive

CorrectiveCorrective

Condition-BasedCondition-Based

Vision Systems for automatic recognition of defects

Vision Systems for automatic recognition of defects

Decision Support SystemsDecision Support Systems

Monitoring SystemsMonitoring Systems

Positioning SystemsPositioning Systems

Inspection SystemsInspection Systems

Maintenance Policies

InfrastructureTechnologies

ERPERP

GISGIS Palm ApplicationsPalm Applications

BallastBallast

RailsRailsSleepersSleepers

……

TrackTrack

Overhead LineOverhead Line

TelecommunicationsTelecommunications

SignallingSignalling

CyclicCyclic

Measuring Systems for Track, Overheard line and

Vehicle Dynamics

Measuring Systems for Track, Overheard line and Vehicle Dynamics

SoilSoil

BridgesBridges

PredictivePredictive

CorrectiveCorrective

Condition-BasedCondition-Based

Vision Systems for automatic recognition of defects

Vision Systems for automatic recognition of defects

Decision Support SystemsDecision Support Systems

Monitoring SystemsMonitoring Systems

Positioning SystemsPositioning Systems

Inspection SystemsInspection Systems

Maintenance Policies

InfrastructureTechnologies

ERPERP

GISGIS Palm ApplicationsPalm Applications

BallastBallast

RailsRailsSleepersSleepers

Figure 2: Modern Concept of Integrated Railway

Infrastructure Condition Monitoring

All these systems such as Diagnostic Systems (measuring

systems, visual inspection systems, etc.), Asset Management

Systems (AMS), Decision Support Systems (DSS) and others

(e.g. GIS) have their impact on the condition-based

maintenance chain. In particular, the Diagnostic Systems and

related data-analysis tools (e.g. AMS & DSS) are aimed at

supporting the following three phases of the condition-based

maintenance chain:

• Monitoring: Usually, during the measuring process

different types of diagnostic data are collected. Acquired

data are processed and analyzed for initial defects-

generation and classification. The main defects detected

during this phase are the so-called “critical defects” that

require immediate intervention. They are normally

transmitted in real-time (e.g. e-mail, fax, SMS, etc.) to the

responsible maintenance personnel to schedule further on-

site inspections and/or corrective works. In general, all the

acquired data are stored temporarily on the measuring

systems and then transmitted for further analysis.

• Analysis: Unlike the Monitoring Phase which sole purpose

is to acquire the data, the Analysis phase already falls

within the domain of Asset (Maintenance) Management.

After the acquisition, data are validated, accurately

localized on the railway network topology and finally

stored in the proper data warehouse for the purposes of

Asset (Maintenance) Management. Only starting from this

phase, acquired data can be correlated with all other

existing data. Data correlation is fundamental for obtaining

global understanding of how the overall infrastructure is

behaving. In fact, it is very important to monitor and keep

track of infrastructure conditions over time and also

correlate different infrastructure aspects such as track

geometry and ride quality, pantograph and overhead wire,

track geometry and overhead line geometry, etc. When all

measuring systems are installed on a single train/vehicle

(“run-once-and-get-all”), measurements are perfectly

synchronized in space and time, so data can be analyzed in

an integrated way and correlated in both space and time.

• Warning/Alert Generation: Stored data coming from the

analysis phase are used for the identification of short-time

and limited scope of primarily interventive maintenance

priorities, namely alerts, resulting from the application of

prescriptive norms (e.g. attention vs. intervention

thresholds, quality indexes, etc.) exclusively on the defect

level. The subsequent phases (e.g. planning, optimization,

etc.) supported by dedicated Asset Management / Decision

Support Systems (e.g. RAMSYS, see Chapter 4 –

“Analysis AND PLANNING software”) will manage all

these alerts and others (e.g. cyclic, renewal alerts, etc.) in

the short, middle and long-term time-frames, producing

M&R scenarios.

A wide range of diagnostic systems is available to support the

three described phases of the condition-based maintenance

chain. Table 1 includes the main categories of systems

available on the market and produced by MER MEC:

Table 1: Diagnostic Systems Category Type of measurement

Track measurement Track Geometry

Rail Profile

Rail Corrugation

Ballast Profile

Overhead line

measurement

Overhead Line Geometry

Contact Wire Wear

Pantograph Interaction

Arc Detection

Overhead Line Electric Parameters

Vehicle dynamics

measurement

Ride Quality

Body, bogie and axle boxes accelerations

Wheel-Rail Interaction Forces

Wheel-Rail Contact

Vision systems Automatic Rail Surface Defects detection

Automatic Overhead Line Defects detection

Video inspection Railway Section and Surroundings

Track Surface

Overhead Line

Platforms

Way Side

Other monitoring Signaling

Telecommunication Quality

Environmental Temperature

Tunnel Ceiling status detection

Railway infrastructure kinematic envelope/gauge

Tunnel detection system

Positioning System

Monitoring of Signaling systems

Time Radio-Synchronization system

Diagnostic systems can be assembled and integrated on

railway vehicles, allowing monitoring at low and high speeds.

Depending on the needs and the budget of the railway

operator, different types of configuration can be evaluated.

All diagnostic systems can be assembled and integrated on:

• Dedicated vehicles (e.g. those developed by MER MEC)

or supplied by the Railway Operator

• Commercial vehicles (locomotives/passenger/freight

trains)

All measuring systems are available for any type of track

gauge and they can be operated:

• With operators on-board and real-time analysis (manned)

• Without operators on-board and with automatic data

retrieval (unmanned)

2.1 Track Measurements

With the exception of drainage and substructure problems,

track deteriorates almost exclusively due to forces induced by

traffic. Forces cause destruction of all track components: rails

(fatigue & surface defects), sleepers, ballast, fastenings,

substructure, as well as cause rapid deterioration of the track

geometry (both in short & long wavelengths). In fact, tracks

with bad geometry will:

• Exhibit faster deterioration compared to good geometry

tracks that retain/keep their good shape for longer time-

spans

• Have more frequent failures of all track components,

causing accidents, traffic disruptions and speed

reductions

Therefore, track geometry influences all track components

and their service lives, so keeping good control of the track

quality brings increased revenues from the exploitation of the

line by reducing accidents, traffic disruptions and slow orders

(speed reductions) as well as M&R cost savings.

New measuring systems are available for monitoring various

track geometry parameters. They mainly adopt innovative

techniques based on no-contact opto-electronic technologies,

and no-contact measurement systems based on inertial

techniques, instead of traditional old-fashioned “contact”

track measuring systems, which adopted mechanical devices

in contact with rails.

“ROGER” system for track geometry and rail profile

measuring is fully integrated. In fact, geometrical parameters

of the track are obtained from the measurements of the real

profile of the rail. The system measures rail profiles first, then

it detects the running plane and the point of the head of the

rail placed 14mm under this plan (the “gauge point”). As

shown in the Figure 3, measurements of the profile are

obtained by means of a laser band sheet. It illuminates the

entire surface of the rail head (top and gauge sides).

Figure 3: Rail profile and track geometry measurement

devices

No parts of the system are moving (in motion), but each

component is rigidly fixed to the vehicle frame.

Measurements are realized through lasers, special sensors and

cameras. Any speed the vehicles should travel, each 50 cm

(and/or also 25 cm) a real profile of the track is taken. Then,

through software analysis, the system measures the gauge

from the rail profiles. The rail profile and the gauge point

serve as the basis for detection of the longitudinal level and

alignment of both rails adopting the “chord” technique.

An inertial system, constituted mainly by inclinometer and

rate sensors, is adopted for the measurement of cant and twist.

Twist is calculated from the measurement of the cant. All

measurements can be effectively carried out in the entire

speed range of 0 - 300 km/h, without any influence on the

accuracy. Rail wear is calculated by matching the acquired

rail profile and the nominal (as new) real profiles (obtained

from the database for the known rail types). The right and left

rail profiles (inner sides) measurements can be used to

process “equivalent conicity” (and contact gauge angle) with

a good resolution according to the number of rail profile

points.

Integrated measurement of rail profiles and track geometry as

in the “ROGER” system supports cross-correlation analysis

of the track. Track geometry and rail profile data, as well as

other data (e.g. images) can be correlated and analyzed in an

integrated manner. This allows thorough and true analysis of

the causes of certain defects (e.g. gauge defects caused by

either fastening or rail wear problems) as well as better

identification of track conditions.

2.2 Rail Corrugation

Rail corrugation is known to create significant increases in

dynamic forces, which can considerably deteriorate the long-

wave track geometry. These two things together again can

severely reduce the service lives of all track components. Rail

corrugation can cause both surface and internal defects in

rails, cracking of concrete sleepers and loosening of the

fastenings on the timber sleepers, crushing of the ballast (both

as the consequence of the higher dynamic forces, as well as

that of repeated tamping initiated by the recurring problems in

long-wave track geometry) as well as very dangerous

disturbance to the substructure.

The causal relationship between the corrugation (as the root

cause) and the dynamic forces and track geometry (as the

consequences) can best be seen from the corresponding

measurements done in Italy as represented within the

RAMSYS Asset Management System, Figure 4, which will

be described in Chapter 4. In fact on the Figure 4 several such

locations can be noticed, and having it displayed in an

obvious and user-friendly manner as in RAMSYS it does not

even take a lot of expertise to notice the causalities.

Figure 4: Corrugation consequences

However, what is perhaps most striking is if we were to take

now the location as indicated on the Figure 4 and tried to see

the progression in time of both Corrugation and its

consequences (dynamic forces and track vertical level), we

could immediately notice that they all followed identical

pattern. If we were now to include the work history view, as

seen on the Figure 5, we would see that due to the recurring

problem with the track geometry (which in fact was initiated

by the high corrugation build-up), this location was

repeatedly tamped, and yet the (track geometry) problem was

recurring. This was indeed due to the existence of

corrugation, which however was never remedied. Instead,

what this location needed was grinding and then tamping and

it would have then seen much more stable both track

geometry and corrugation. It is a pity that the information on

the surface and internal defects of rails was not available for

that location, but if it was, it would have most probably

corroborated the statement that indeed the corrugation on that

location has had multiple detrimental consequences, the worst

however of which was the one least observable – i.e. the

build-up of fatigue induced by dynamic-forces in all track

components present on that location, significantly reducing

their service lives and thus increasing the M&R costs.

Repeated Tamping

(green works)

Alignment

Level

Corrugation

Dynamic Forces

Growth of Level over

time (6 measurements)

Growth of Corrugation over time (5 measurements)

Repeated Tamping

(green works)

Alignment

Level

Corrugation

Dynamic Forces

Growth of Level over

time (6 measurements)

Growth of Corrugation over time (5 measurements)

Figure 5: Corresponding time-progression of Corrugation and

Track Geometry (Vertical Level) and repeated

(unnecessary) Tamping remedying the symptom instead

of the root-cause

Fully respecting the importance of Corrugation has prompted

MER MEC to develop a highly-accurate corrugation

measurement system (Figure 6) effectively allowing railways

to measure and monitor the existence and build-up of

corrugation, and with the help of powerful tools like

RAMSYS, to correlate it with other data in order to extract

the intrinsic and salient mutual interrelationships and identify

the true root causes of the problems and devise the most

adequate remedial activities.

Figure 6: Rail Corrugation Measuring System

2.3 Vehicle Dynamics

In order to study the interaction forces which act at the wheel-

rail contact point and the oscillatory motions to which the

vehicle is subjected during the running, different parameters

have been introduced to quantify the vehicle safety against

derailment, its aggressiveness towards the track and the

passengers’ comfort. Moreover, some types of defects of the

track can also be detected from this kind of analysis. Three

main classes of systems are available for the measurement of:

• Wheel-Rail Interaction Forces

• Bogies and coach real-time accelerations

• Wheel-Rail Contact Geometry

The UIC & European Norms (CEN) require direct

measurement of the lateral force Y and the vertical force Q,

acted by the wheel on the track, in order to demonstrate safe

running conditions (UIC 518). For this purpose, the following

monitoring aspects are required

• Real time Y & Q forces

• Real time Y/Q ratio

• Lateral acceleration correlation.

Furthermore, the following analyses are also available:

• Of the Wheel profile with optical technology

• Of the Wheel-rail coupling, delta-r (∆r) calculation,

angles of contact and equivalent conicity at several

values of sigma.

Vehicle dynamics measurement are carried out using systems

based on Strain Gauges instrumentation on wheels making

use of telemetry system for signal extraction, non-contact

Laser displacement and accelerometer sensors. In particular,

accelerometer sensors detect the mechanical vibrations of

railway vehicles. These vibrations depend on the vehicle

characteristics (e.g. quality of primary and secondary

suspensions, etc.) as well as the quality of the rolling plane

(e.g. longitudinal level, alignment, twist, rail joints defects;

irregular wear of the rail-wheel contact profile, etc.).

3 Automatic Infrastructure Inspection

Railway operators looking for improving safety of their

networks must regularly inspect the infrastructure to avoid

accidents as well as introduce most cost-efficient ways of

carrying out such inspections. Data collected during

inspections play an important role for both safety and

condition monitoring. For example, the swelling or

subsidence of the ballast beds or the presence of objects

infringing clearance profile are hazardous for rail vehicles.

Rail defects, like black spots, can propagate inwards into the

rail-head, and when they reach a dangerous depth, they may

propagate downward transversely, producing fractures of the

rail, so it is important to keep infrastructure under inspection

in order to timely identify the anomalies.

Inspections can be done on foot (by walking) or by vehicle,

adopting traditional video inspection systems for image

acquisition and video capturing, or innovative vision systems

for automatic defect detection. Compared to on foot

inspection, automatic inspections consume less resources (e.g.

time, line interruption, etc.) and moreover they do not require

safety measures for allowing people to access the network

lines.

In general, video and vision systems mounted on-board

trains/vehicles provide the possibility of checking different

aspects of the entire environment surrounding the

infrastructure as well as the infrastructure itself. Moreover, if

these systems are integrated with other diagnostic systems,

they allow:

• Linking specific infrastructure defects to possible

environmental conditions that might have caused the

defects.

• Evaluating how infrastructure environment evolves and if

any change can produce eventual problems to the normal

railways activities.

• Analysis of the images in specific points of the railway

network for safety and control purposes.

3.1 Track Surface Inspection Systems With Automatic

Defects Detection

MER MEC’s approach to Track Surface Inspection using

“Vision Technologies” is based on the framework composed

by 3 subsystems:

• TSIS: Track Surface Inspection Subsystem

• Joint Gap and Head Checks Inspection Subsystem

• TSMS: Track Surface Measurement Subsystem

“Track Surface Inspection System” provides innovative

functions for real-time video monitoring of track condition

and automatic recognition of resulting defects. Traditional

video inspection of the rail surface imposes that specialized

personnel analyze visually all the recorded images. This

activity is clearly time consuming and potentially hazardous

because the results are strictly dependent on the ability of the

viewer to detect possible anomalies and report critical

situations. As opposed to that, Vision Systems for defect

detection automate the defect recognition and speed up the

inspection process by reducing the image analysis time as

well as increase the reliability of the detection process.

The “Track Surface Inspection System” can be used for:

• Detection of Sleepers types & moving sleepers

• Rail fastenings types detection and condition, as well as

fastenings in (unwanted) contact with wheel flanges

• Rail surface defects

o Black Holes

o Burnings

o Rail Break

o Crushed Head

o Cracks (thickness > 0.7 mm)

• Base plate condition in absence of ballast and pincers

position

• Joint Gap measurement estimations & Head Checks

Inspection

• Checks of ballast irregularities, vegetation, structural

condition of magnets, pass-throughs, axle counters, AFI

and ETCS balises

o Detailed analysis

o Markings Detection

o Missing Bolts

o Released Shoulder Plate

o Misfit rail pads

o Distance/position of Clammers to the

sleepers/fastenings

Images

Analyses Historical Section

Analyses Infos

Kilometric reference

Message Area

Images[HEAD CHECK]

Status

Status

Images

Analyses Historical Section

Analyses Infos

Kilometric reference

Message Area

Images[HEAD CHECK]

Status

Status

Figure 7: Track Surface Inspection System Analysis

The “Track Surface Defect Detection System” is based on the

no-contact optical technology using high-speed line-scan

cameras for track images acquisition. Enhanced vision

algorithms identify and classify defects according to their

properties and/or their position in the track. A special

illumination system allows the system to operate properly at

every light condition. Synchronization with the vehicle’s

encoders allows identification of its position on the track and

its kilometric point. The analysis can be done image by

image. In real-time, the system extracts rail images, and

identifies their position using odometer. The on-board system

allows acquisition, processing, displaying and storage of the

image-frames of both rails. The post-processing analyzes each

image to locate automatically the defects according to their

size, position, etc.

Figure 8: Track Surface Inspection System – Rail Surface

Analysis & Defect Detection

“Joint Gap and Head Checks Inspection Subsystem” is

composed by two high speed cameras, completely integrated

with the standard system, which allow automatic detection

and highly accurate measurement of rail joint/weld gaps and

rail head-checks (their length, width, angle and clustering),

and all that at very high speeds reaching 250 km/h.

Size/width of rail joints and welds is very important cause it

directly influences the rise of dynamic forces, which again

decisively influence the life of all track components beneath

and in the vicinity.

Figure 9: Joint Gap and Head Checks Inspection Subsystem –

Joint/Weld detection & measurement

Rail head-checking (rolling contact fatigue – RCF, or gauge

corner cracking - GCC defects) in turn has become an issue of

an outmost importance for railways World-wide in the recent

years due to their sudden and often worryingly drastic rise

observed in the recent years. RCF defects like head-checks, if

left unattended could develop very quickly and turn into rail

breaks of often fatal consequences, as could have been seen

from the tragic accident at Hatfield, UK, where four people

were killed and a further seventy injured. When a preliminary

investigation found that a rail had fragmented while the train

had passed over it, and that the likely cause was GCC, it led

to temporary speed restrictions being imposed on huge

lengths of Britain's railways, effectively crippling many

routes, while checks were carried out on the rails.

Being able to monitor this obviously critical

phenomenon/defect, and especially in such an accurate,

reliable and above all efficient manner like with the above

system with automatic detection capabilities, railways can

make proper assessments of the situation and its gravity as

well as decide on adequate actions to be taken (typically

grinding, if not too late or re-railing) in a timely manner, thus

drastically improving the safety of the railway traffic.

“Track Surface Measurement Subsystem” adopts area scan

cameras in association with a set of laser blades to accurately

measure the position of various track objects, with the aim of

executing the following verifications that require high

intensity processing:

• Detection of ballast irregularities

• Vegetation check

• Distance measurement between different rail fastening

components

• Checking of the structural condition of magnets, pass-

through, axle counters, AFI, ETCS balises

Figure 10: Track Surface Measurement Subsystem

4 Analysis & Planning

The planning phase can be realized by building the

appropriate historical knowledge-base supported by further

software tools for easy data access/correlation (e.g. work

history data), processing and decision-making. In order to

fully support/cover the planning phase, MER MEC has

designed and developed a special software platform for the

overall integrated Asset Management including M&R

planning, named RAMSYS (Railway Asset Management

SYStem). RAMSYS represents a dedicated system for

Railway Infrastructure Maintenance Management designed to

help Railway Infrastructure Managers to handle complex

multidisciplinary and multidimensional process of

infrastructure degradation by integrating all necessary

information through advanced visualization (Figure 11) and

analytical capabilities necessary for optimal planning of

M&R works. RAMSYS system, being extremely complex,

requires lot of space for proper description, hence in this

paper only the basics will be provided. The main idea

however is that it puts full focus on utilizing condition data

for work planning. All condition data coming from various

Diagnostic Systems are utilized simultaneously, together with

the complete history to capture/define the "behavior" of each

and every asset and then to use this "historic-perspective" to

generate the "forecasted behavior", with the use of

sophisticated deterioration models. Only based on the

forecasted behavior and comparison to the required quality

and incurred costs, the optimal combination of activities

(M&R works, as well as inspections) can be defined and

proposed for execution. Thus, RAMSYS has the ability to

balance Maintenance versus Renewal works, as well as

quality versus costs, in order to define the optimal scenario,

i.e. the M&R policy/strategy.

a) Integrating various data in the same View

Work HistoryWork History

Dynamic Forces Measurements

Dynamic Forces

Measurements

Track Quality

Measurements

Track QualityMeasurements

Track

Segments

Track

Segments

Asset

Inventory

Asset

Inventory

System

Management

System

Management

Corrugation

Measurements

Corrugation

Measurements

Change of Corrugation

over time for the

selected stretch

Change of Corrugation

over time for the

selected stretch

b) Condition-measurements vs. Infra. Assets inventory

System

Managem ent

System Managem ent

W ork HistoryWork HistoryDynam ic Forces Measurements

Dynamic Forces Measurem ents

Track layoutTrack layout

Rail W ear

Measurements

Rail Wear

Measurements

Corrugation

Measurements

Corrugation

Measurements

Asset InventoryAsset Inventory

Track Quality

Measurements

Track QualityMeasurem ents

Video Inspection

Im ages

Video Inspection

Images

OHL Height, Stagger

& Wear

OHL Height, Stagger & W ear

OHL Height, Stagger

& Wear

OHL Height, Stagger & W ear

OHL Height, Stagger

& Wear

OHL Height, Stagger & W ear

OHL Height, Stagger

& Wear

OHL Height, Stagger & W ear

OHL Height, Stagger

& Wear

OHL Height, Stagger & W ear

OHL Height, Stagger

& Wear

OHL Height, Stagger & W ear

OHL

Inventory

OHL

Inventory

c) Layout vs. Raw Track Geometry Measurem. vs. Work

History & Infrast. Assets Inventory & Photographs/movies

Work HistoryWork HistoryWork HistoryWork HistoryWork HistoryWork HistoryWork HistoryWork History

User-definable Threshold

User-definable Threshold

Degradation Trend

Degradation Trend

Work HistoryWork HistoryMeasured Values

Measured ValuesWork HistoryWork HistoryMeasured Values

Measured Values Planned WorkPlanned Work

System Management

System Management

List of Parameters shown in the View and their

characteristics

List of Parameters shown in the View and their

characteristics

d) Integrated Deterioration Modeling and Forecasting view

Figure 11: Examples of RAMSYS Advanced Visualization

5 Conclusion

The described diagnostic systems and consequently the use of

the acquired data, play fundamental role for any railway

infrastructure owner/manager and/or operator mainly for two

reasons.

• First, infrastructure in poor condition and with poor

performance compromises the railway network

operations and safety and can cause high-cost

consequences such as corrective maintenance, traffic

interruptions and speed reductions.

• Second, M&R management represents the largest part of

railways’ expenditures as well as requires significant

resources (i.e. people, material, machines and/or line

interruptions / possessions), so even the smallest

planning errors can cause tremendous detrimental

consequences. On the other hand, even the marginal

improvements in the control and management of the

infrastructure could yield significant absolute savings.

MER MEC systems described in this paper are aimed at

developing a comprehensive solution including proper set of

measuring, inspection and analysis tools for supporting not

only the diagnostics of the railway infrastructure but also the

planning of M&R works and improving the assertive power

in taking M&R decisions. The full solution can be configured

according to the railway owner/operator/maintainer’s needs

taking into account budget as well as other aspects of railway

infrastructure to monitor and maintenance processes in place.

Main benefits of the described systems include:

• Reliable and fast data collection

• Measurements are in the digital format and as such they

can directly be used to build a historical knowledge base

to be used for advanced analysis

• Earlier/timely identification and correction of critical

defects and mitigation of risks of critical defect

occurrence

• Efficient usage of track access times, thus increasing

track availability for the revenue traffic as well as freeing

the scarce time for other important engineering works

• Measurements and data related to different aspects of the

infrastructure can be integrated and correlated

• Transition from corrective to on-condition and

predictive-preventive maintenance

• Choosing optimized M&R plans based on true

infrastructure conditions

The ultimate goal however is of course to increase the

infrastructure safety and availability at minimum of (M&R)

costs, which definitely justifies and pays off all the

investments and efforts necessary for deployment of a full

solution for implementing in an effective manner the full-

scale condition-based maintenance chain.

6 References

[1] G. Aurisicchio, et al, “Infrastructure Monitoring

Systems for Improved Operation and Safety in CVRD”,

8th International Heavy Haul Conference, Rio de

Janeiro, Brazil, (2005)

[2] G. Aurisicchio, et al, “A fuzzy logic based filter for

spike-noise detection in railways monitoring systems”,

IEEE International Workshop on Soft Computing in

Industrial Applications, Binghamton University,

Binghamton, New York, (2003)

[3] S. Jovanovic, “Track Quality Analysis and Consequent

Decision Making”, 8th International Heavy Haul

Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, (2005)

[4] S. Jovanovic, “Railway Track Quality Assessment and

related Decision Making”, The American Railway

Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association

(AREMA) 2006 Annual Conference, Louisville, USA

(2006)