Prioritization of railway proximity interventions: The case of the Portuguese railway network

Abstract

The mission of a national railway administration is to provide conditions for the efficiency, competitiveness, and sustainability of rail transport. In this context, this study aims to fill a gap in rail infrastructure management through the adoption of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and quadrant analysis to obtain a priority evaluation matrix for railway proximity interventions (small-scale, medium/short-term interventions close to the customer). In order to achieve the network manager’s general goals, an extensive collection of railway activities and an iterative procedure, which combines the strategic vision of different operational units, were adopted. Moreover, a multi-criteria and hierarchy process based on quadrant analysis to select the interventions with greater potential to achieve a set of objectives over five years, was defined. The proposed methodology was applied in a real case within the Infrastructures of Portugal, SA competencies and needs (Portuguese railway network manager). The identification of a set of fundamental interventions from a technical and non-technical point of view was performed and allowed a more efficient resource allocation. This allowed listing the most relevant interventions in both technical and non-technical perspectives (19–25% of total interventions) and also from an essentially technical point of view (27–31% of total interventions). These correspond to the interventions located in the two most relevant quadrants (Q1 – develop and Q2 – validate) and to more than 70% of the total investment. The presented approach and results constitute the first three iterations to be monitored and evaluated in the revision of future plans in order to increase reliability levels, safety conditions and service quality. The methodology has the potential to be adapted to different scenarios (in particular budgetary) and future proximity intervention plans, thus being an essential decision support tool for an efficient allocation of the company’s resources.