Collection and use of railway track performance and maintenance data

There is increasing pressure for track managers to optimise the mix of infrastructure maintenance and renewal activities so that better performance can be extracted from the asset at lower operating costs. Track related data is usually collected for several purposes with different players (eg: track owners, rail operators and regulators and funding agencies) requiring data at different levels of detail and about different matters. The paper reports on a review of data collection procedures as part of a project funded by the Rail CRC, aimed at "Enhancing the Optimisation of Maintenance/Renewal." The paper also reports on preliminary outcomes of an international survey of current practice with respect to track related data collection and use.