Managing rail service life

Abstract

The service life of rails depends especially on the operational loads and speeds on the railway lines, as well as on the rail maintenance policy. There are multiple aspects of rail maintenance optimization. The following article considers optimisation of rail maintenance activities relating to rail head surface condition in order to reduce corrective work on track geometry, as well as to minimize the overall costs for track maintenance. The objects of this research are issues and challenges related to rail and track maintenance in curves on modern conventional railway lines for mixed traffic.