A review of risk management applications for railways

The UK railway infrastructure is carrying ever increasing amounts of railway and freight traffic which in turn is causing accelerated rates of infrastructure deterioration. Given the pressure to increase track utilization, the ageing infrastructure on which much of the UK's railway is founded, and the constrained budgets under which the infrastructure is managed, appropriate maintenance needs to be predicted, prioritized, planned and carried out efficiently and effectively. Safety is also a paramount consideration in the operation of the UK's railways. To effectively manage the railways under these constraints, there is a need to develop asset management procedures which incorporate risk management concepts so that, periodic maintenance requirements can be predicted in advance of track failure and prioritised, and identified risks and uncertainties can be considered within the decision-making processes. The paper critically reviews current risk management practices in the railway industry to identify suitable risk management models and suggests recommendations for their further improvement and incorporation within asset management.

A Review of Risk Management Applications for Railways. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317749032_A_Review_of_Risk_Management_Applications_for_Railways [accessed Jun 23, 2017].