Approach to systematic improvements of dependability within railway asset management

This paper describes results from a research and development (R&D) project at Trafikverket (Swedish transport administration). The purpose of the study was to systemize dependability improvements of Trafikverket's Control Command and Signalling (CCS) assets considering all phases of its life cycle. A case study was conducted on level crossings that represent a critical part of the CCS system. The results of the study show that the systemic approach contributes to asset management by short-term dependability and productivity improvements as well as by medium term specifications for system modifications and long-term specifications for next generation of level crossings. The approach is based on a combination of methodologies and tools described in dependability standards, e.g., Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). However, the approach also considers aspects from Design of Experiments (DoE) to support field tests aligned with other tasks in the railway infrastructure. Besides contributing to improvements, the approach complies with regulations and mandatory standards. Examples of these are Common Safety Method for Risk Evaluation and Assessment (CSM-RA, EU 402/2013) and EN 50126-RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety) for railway applications. In addition, the approach complies with regulatory requirements related to enterprise risk management and internal control, i.e., effectiveness, productivity, compliance and documentation. The approach also supports asset management in accordance with the ISO 55000-series.