Abstract
Railway transport consists of two main asset classes of infrastructure and rolling stock. To date, there has been a great deal of interest in the study and analysis of failure mechanisms for railway infrastructure assets, e.g. tracks, sleepers, bridges, signalling system, electrical units, etc. However, few attempts have been made by researchers to develop failure criticality assessment models for rolling stock components. A rolling stock failure may cause delays and disruptions to transport services or even result in catastrophic derailment accidents. In this paper, the potential risks of unexpected failures occurring in rolling stock are identified, analysed and evaluated using a failure mode, effects and criticality analysis-based approach. The most critical failure modes in the system with respect to both reliability and economic criteria are reviewed, the levels of failure criticality are determined and possible methods for mitigation are provided. For the purpose of illustrating the risk evaluation methodology, a case study of the Class 380 train’s door system operating on Scotland’s railway network is provided and the results are discussed. The data required for the study are partly collected from the literature and unpublished sources and partly gathered from the maintenance management information system available in the company. The results of this study can be used not only for assessing the performance of current maintenance practices, but also to plan a cost-effective preventive maintenance (PM) programme for different components of rolling stock.
Highlights
The railway transport sector is a key enabler of economic growth worldwide
The potential risks of unexpected failures occurring in rolling stock are identified, analysed and evaluated using a failure mode, effects and criticality analysis-based approach
The British railway industry was privatised over the period 1994–1997, but nowadays most of the railway tracks are managed by Network Rail (NR) [3]
Summary
The railway transport sector is a key enabler of economic growth worldwide. The United Kingdom (UK) has a railway network of 17,732 km of track (the 17th largest in the world) which is spread over wide geographical areas throughout the country [1]. A failure of any of rolling stock components can cause a complete failure of the system and lead to traffic delays and disruptions, passenger inconvenience and economic losses for train operating companies. Rolling stock failures may result in the derailment of waggons and casualties of passengers and crew For these reasons, it is crucial to develop practical methodologies for analysing and mitigating the risks associated with failure of various rolling stock components at a system level. The potential risks of unexpected failures occurring in rolling stock are identified, analysed and evaluated using a FMECA-based approach. According to criticality levels ranging from 1 (lowest) to 100 (highest), the most critical failure modes in the rolling stock with respect to both reliability and economic criteria are identified.
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