Author(s)

M. Lake, L. Ferreira & M. Murray

Abstract

Minimising costs in scheduling railway track maintenance M. Lake, L. Ferreira and M. Murray School of Civil Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Abstract In Australian freight operations, 25-35 percent of total train operating expenses are track maintenance related. Therefore significant savings in expenditure can be achieved if track maintenance is conducted in the most cost effective manner. Railways, however, operate under the conflicting objectives of minimising the infrastructure expenses while continuing to provide adequate service. The conflict between maintenance and train operations has intensified over recent years due to a number of factors including: increased traffic on railways; the reduction of route and track kilometres and an increasing move towards the separation of the track ownership and the track infrastructure management. This paper reports on the development of a model for the short-term scheduling of track maintenance activities, af

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