The efficiency of a locomotive fleet as a complex system depends significantly on the mode and conditions of its operation, which, in many cases, are determined both by its own condition and by the state of the maintenance system. In reality, changes in the state of the system, and its further behaviour in most cases can be described by the Markov process. It should be noted the excessive rigidity of the hypothesis about the Markov character of the behaviour in the process of technical operation of the locomotive fleet that makes the resulting model insufficiently adequate. The article proposes a methodology to assess the efficiency in the functioning of the locomotive fleet as a semi-Markov system. Relationships for calculating the main statistical characteristics of the efficiency indicators in the process of technical operation of locomotives have been obtained. The choice of optimality criteria for the process is justified. A procedure for constructing an ordered sequence of enhancing maintenance and repair strategies, considering the condition of a particular locomotive has been offered. Determining the optimality criteria for the technical operation process of the locomotive fleet based on the research of stochastic estimates in the efficiency of the semi-Markov model. Obtaining a sequence of maintenance and repair strategies. The efficiency of locomotive fleet operation significantly depends on the quality of service. The quality of service is determined by the effectiveness of diagnostic tools for technical conditions. The process of operating a locomotive fleet is described by a semi-Markov model. The semi-Markov model used makes it possible to more fully take into account, in the general case, the diagnostic support of the locomotive and the restoration process. The unit cost function the average unit cost, the average unit loss coefficient the coefficient of average, and operating factor was selected as target functions. A procedure has been proposed for constructing an ordered sequence of improving maintenance and repair strategies, considering the condition of a particular locomotive.