Evolution of turnouts to low TCO systems

Based on the topic of the conference; costs; this paper describes the impact of solutions related to the financial performance of the infrastructure owner. These technical solutions are derived from required functions and applications with specific operating parameters such as axle load and speed. If railway track is perceived as a production facility, then turnouts in general are capacity multipliers which allow higher utilisation of the track and therefore, just because of their strategic positioning, are one of the measures to positively influence the profitability of the railway company. Considering additionally the life expectancy of track components, it is obvious nowadays that it is very risky to select turnouts based only on the purchase costs. Turnouts are clearly an investment, an industrial product, and therefore a proper investment calculation has to include operational costs over the whole life time. Abbreviations as TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and LCC (Life Cycle Cost) are well known and often used but more importantly, the awareness about the significance and the real commitment to TOC and LCC has increased over the last few years. It must also be understood that low TCO by evolutionary engineering measures and the positive effect on financial KPI’s of the client can be very different for each railway organisation depending on their capital and assets structure and their operational strategy. The solutions described here are the latest status of the evolution in the clear meaning of a Darwinist approach, based on selection, in that case selection by the railways applying these. All smart engineering solutions and ideas are not successful if they are not adopted by the clients finally.

• Record URL:
  http://railknowledgebank.com/Presto/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=MTk4MTRjNDUtNWQ0My00OTBmLTllYWUtZWFjM2U2OTE0ZDY3&rID=MjI2OQ==&sID=MTA=&ph=VHJ1ZQ==&qcf=&bckToL=VHJ1ZQ==
• Authors:
  • Sodia F
  • Ossberger H
• Conference:
  • AusRAIL PLUS 2013, Driving the Costs out of Rail, 26-28 November 2013, Canberra, ACT, Australia
• Publication Date: 2013

Media Info

• Pagination: 11p. ; PDF
• Monograph Title: AusRAIL PLUS 2013, driving the costs out of rail, 26-28 November 2013, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Infrastructure; Life cycle costing; Standardization
• ATRI Terms: Cost; Infrastructure; Life cycle costs; Standardization
• ITRD Terms: 2428: Ecobalance
• Subject Areas: Finance;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01532233
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ATRI
• Created Date: Jul 29 2014 12:02PM