Selection of maintenance, renewal and improvement projects in rail lines using the analytic network process

Abstract

This paper addresses one of the most common problems that a railway infrastructure manager has to face: to prioritise a portfolio of maintenance, renewal and improvement (MR&I) projects in a railway network. This decision-making problem is complex due to the large number of MR&I projects in the portfolio and the different criteria to take into consideration, most of which are influenced and interrelated to each other. To address this problem, the use of the analytic network process (ANP) is proposed. The method is applied to a case study in which the Local Manager of the public company, who is responsible for the MR&I of Spanish Rail Lines, has to select the MR&I projects which have to be executed first. Based on the results, it becomes evident that, for this case study, the main factor of preference for a project is the location of application rather than the type of project. The main contributions of this work are: the deep analysis done to identify and weigh the decision criteria, how to assess the alternatives and provide a rigorous and systematic decision-making process, based on an exhaustive revision of the literature and expertise.