European railway operators’ experience in managing the dependability and safety of technical assets using advanced digital technologies

Abstract. The Aim of the paper is to analyze and examine the experience of the railway companies of the European Union in designing technical asset management systems based on advanced digital technologies. Railway companies are interested in the development of efficient maintenance and repair strategies that allow increasing the volume of traffic with a high level of safety and reliability using the Big Data produced by diagnostic systems. Methods. A comparative analysis of the best practices by European railway companies was performed, the employed digital technologies were compared, and the best known and commercially available software solutions for constructing an asset management system were reviewed. Findings/ Conclusions. Railway companies will have to make a lot of effort in order to not let the vast current expenditures associated with the digitization go to waste, since the deployment of new technology will meet the resistance of the existing system of management and allocation of responsibilities between levels of management within a company. The generic architecture of the European asset management information framework is a highly diverse range of IT solutions, which is a great challenge, as any modification to the operation of the software system requires significant time, managerial and financial resources. In this context, most successful are the companies that have invested in the development of own digital asset management frameworks.

technical asset management, dependability, safety, risk, railway transportation, railway company infrastructure, maintenance, decision support, digital technology, software, URRAN

1. [DIANA, a diagnostic system for turnouts]. Rail International 2019;7:73-74. (in Russ.)

2. Lasting Infrastructure Cost Benchmarking (LISB). 20 years of benchmarking (1996-2015). UIC – Railway Technical Publications (ETF). Paris; 2017. ISBN: 978-2- 7461-2643-5.

3. Guidelines for the Application of Asset Management in Railway Infrastructure Organizations. UIC – Railway Technical Publications (ETF). Paris; 2016. ISBN: 978-2- 7461-2521-6.

4. Key Cost Drivers in Railway Asset Management. UIC – Railway Technical Publications (ETF). Paris; 2016. ISBN:978-2-7461-2482-0.

5. Zamyshliaev A.M., Shubinsky I.B. [Development of the URRAN project through the construction of a technical asset management system]. Zheleznodorozhny transport 2019;12:19-27. (in Russ.)

6. Zamyshlyaev A., Shubinsky I. Adaptive management system of dependability and safety of railway infrastructure. Second international symposium on stochastic models in reliability engineering, life science and operations management (SMRLO). Be’er-Sheva (Israel); 15.02.16-18.02.16. IEEE Xplore Digital Library; 244-250.

7. Shubinsky I., Zamyshlyaev A. Risk management system on the railway transport. Second international symposium on stochastic models in reliability engineering, life science and operations management (SMRLO). Be’er-Sheva (Israel); 15.02.16-18.02.16. IEEE Xplore Digital Library; 481-486.

8. «Smart Data» for Sustainable Real Estate and Infrastructures Oxand. URL: www.oxand.com (accessed 08.06.2020)

9. Urban/rail public transport engineering consulting firm (metro, bus, tramway, etc.) – SYSTRA France & international. URL: https://www.systra.com (accessed 08.06.2020).

10. Assetsman – Asset Management Industriel – Assetsman. URL: https://www.assetsman.com (accessed 08.06.2020).

11. Cosmo Tech – Enterprise Digital Twin Software Solutions. URL: https://www.cosmotech.com (accessed 08.06.2020).

12. 3B infra. URL: www.3binfra.at (accessed 08.06.2020).

13. Reliability Software, Safety and Quality Solutions – ALD Service. URL: https://www.aldservice.com (accessed 08.06.2020).

14. ReliaSoft – Reliability and Maintainability Analysis – ReliaSoft. URL: https://www.reliasoft.com (accessed 08.06.2020)

15. SAP Software Solutions Business Applications and Technology. URL: https://www.sap.com (accessed 08.06.2020).

16. ABB Group. Leading digital technologies for industry. URL: https://new.abb.com/offerings (accessed 08.06.2020).

17. IBM – Russian Federation. URL: https://www.ibm. com/ru-ru (accessed 08.06.2020).