Safety assessment of underground vehicles passing over highly resilient curved tracks in the presence of a broken rail

Vehicle–track interaction for a new resilient slab track designed to reduce noise and vibration levels was analysed, in order to assess the derailment risk on a curved track when encountering a broken rail. Sensitivity of the rail support spacing of the relative position of the rail breakage between two adjacent rail supports and of running speed were analysed for two different elasticities of the rail fastening system. In none of the cases analysed was observed an appreciable difference between either of the elastic systems. As was expected, the most unfavourable situations were those with greater rail support spacing and those with greater distance from the breakage to the nearest rail support, although in none of the simulations performed did a derailment occur when running over the broken rail. When varying the running speed, the most favourable condition was obtained for an intermediate speed, due to the superposition of two antagonistic effects

Identifying rail asset maintenance processes: a human-centric and sensemaking approach

Efficient asset maintenance is key for delivering services such as transport. Current rail maintenance processes have been mostly reactive with a recent shift towards exploring proactive modes. The introduction of new ubiquitous technologies and advanced data analytics facilitates the embedding of a ‘predict-and-prevent’ approach to managing assets. Successful, user-centred integration of such technology is still, however, a sparsely understood area. This study reports results from a set of interviews, based on Critical Decision Method, with rail asset maintenance and management experts regarding current procedural aspects of asset management and maintenance. We analyse and present the results from a human-centric sensemaking timeline perspective. We found that within a complex sociotechnical environment such as rail transport, asset maintenance processes apply not just at local levels, but also to broader, strategic levels that involve different stakeholders and necessitate different levels of expertise. This is a particularly interesting aspect within maintenance that has not been discussed as of yet within a process-based and timeline-based models of asset maintenance. We argue that it is important to consider asset maintenance activities within both micro (local) and macro (broader) levels to ensure reliability and stability in transport services. We also propose that the traditionally distinct notions of individual, collaborative and artefact-based sensemaking are in fact all in evidence in this sensemaking context, and argue that a more holistic view of sensemaking is therefore appropriate by placing these results within an amended Recogntion Primed Decsion making model