Reliability, availability and maintainability analyses for railway infrastructure management

Abstract

Reliable, available, maintainable and safe operation in railway transportation is significant for passenger and freight transportation. For these reasons, European Union put into practice a standard in 1999 known as EN 50126 to prevent railway accidents and to ensure a high level of safety in railway operations. The EN 50126 standard consists of these following concepts: Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS). These concepts are also recognised as RAMS analyses, which enable to do risk analyses to minimise the risks to the acceptable levels. In this study, a model framework including some stages was developed and the Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) analyses were applied to the railway infrastructure management. In addition, a case study was analysed for Uzbekistan high-speed railways between Tashkent and Sirdaryo train stations. The RAM analysis techniques were used during the analysis stages. The analyses were performed for the track geometry and the each type of railway track components to achieve a reliable, available and maintainable railway infrastructure management.