The purpose of this paper is to describe an application of an effective risk-based methodology to support a living maintenance programme for railway infrastructure.
The overall research strategy is a single case study of switches and crossings at the Iron Ore Line in northern Sweden. The analysis was performed as a risk workshop guided by a methodology that integrates reliability-centred maintenance and barrier analysis.
The applied methodology is valuable to systematise and improve the existing maintenance programme, as well as supporting a continued living maintenance programme.
The single case study approach may decrease the validity of the achieved results. However, similar case studies corroborate the results, which affect the validity in a positive way.
The resulting maintenance programme is effective, through compliance with external requirements, and more efficient, through improvements of tasks and intervals.
An enhanced railway infrastructure maintenance programme contributes to improved safety, punctuality, and costs. Hence, railway becomes a more attractive mode of transport. Thereby, it also supports a safety performance of the railway that society is willing to pay for.
Significant improvements of the maintenance programme are achieved through adjustment of inspection intervals and tasks. The results also support the development of indicators, monitoring, and continuous improvement.
