Performance evaluation of rail transportation systems by considering resilience engineering factors: Tehran railway electrification system

Abstract

Rail transportation systems often encounter risks, such as failure and downtime. Resilience engineering (RE) enables hazard-prone systems to remain stable in the face of sudden changes or to minimize the effects of changes in such systems. In other words, RE keeps the system stable in the face of any potential disturbances. This study uses a new framework, i.e. the combination of four key variables, namely health, safety, ergonomics, and resilience engineering to assess the performance of a railway transportation system. To this end, a questionnaire was first designed based on the stated concepts for data collection and performance evaluation of Tehran–Karaj railway electrification system. Then, data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach was used to evaluate the decision-making units (DMUs) of the railway system. The results indicated that there was a significant growth in the number of efficient DMUs (67%) and a relative growth in the mean value of total efficiency (3.6%) by considering RE concept. In other words, RE plays a significant role in the promotion of system performance. The results also showed that teamwork had the highest impact on the railway system performance among the RE-associated factors. The Spearman test was performed to validate the results of this study. It is one of the first studies that evaluate a railway transportation system by considering resilience engineering and other concepts, such as health, safety, and ergonomics using DEA approach.