State of the art for European track maintenance and renewal logistics

Adopting best practice in the field of track maintenance and renewal logistics is crucial to achieving low costs for Europe's railway; but, European practices vary considerably between infrastructure managers (IMs). This paper describes research carried out to try and establish the current state of the art for logistics, as a first step to identifying European best practice. Data on existing logistics practices were gathered using two questionnaires: one web-based and featuring questions, which were quantitative in nature, and the other covering qualitative questions, which were dealt with in face-to-face interviews. Data provided by the questionnaires suggest that the current state of the art involves centralized purchasing of components by IMs and use of call-off contracts for procurement. Maintenance work is predominantly carried out by in-house staff, but renewals tend to be let to contractors. Work is mainly carried out during 'white periods' in the timetable, when no trains are running; blockades are rarely used. Finally, recycling of components is seen as important from the point-of-view of sustainability, but IMs are finding it hard to make the business case.