Development of preventive track maintenance model for indian metro rail using machine learning approach

Abstract

One of the major development in the transportation sector is that our newlinenation is bestowed with Metro Rail Transit Systems (MRTS). Especially with newlinethe advent of mass rapid transit systems like metros, the transportation sector newlinehas gained wider accessibility within the cities at a faster pace. Major newlinemetropolitan cities in our nation rely on the MRTS systems for daily, newlineeconomical conveyance purposes. Therefore, these facilities should be newlinemaintained coherently to extend their expected lifespan. One of the major newlinecomponents that subsidize the smooth run of MRTS is the rail-road system newline(tracks). The frictional forces caused by trains passing over them, as well as newlinethe corrosive effects of the surrounding environment, pose a threat to the newlinequality of railway tracks. Most MRTS employ ballastless types of tracks to newlinereduce the maintenance costs incurred in maintaining them. Railways recently newlineimplemented the Preventive Railway Track Maintenance (PRTM) system to newlineimprove the quality of railway tracks, but it sometimes fails to deal with the newlineactual needs or emergencies of railway tracks. Maintenance interventions of the rail tracks are performed based on the results of periodic inspections and the recorded parameter values of track geometry. Maintenance or replacement of any single component is not possible with continuous service of trains all along the daytime. Therefore, most of the Indian metro rail systems have implemented track maintenance newlineactivities during the night time only after service run. This schedule may vary newlinewhen the parallel departments (i.e rolling stock, signaling/communication) are newlineneeded to perform their maintenance works. Especially upon expansion of newlinetrack length in a further phase of construction, the manpower (Maintainers) newlinerequirements may not be sufficient enough to go hand in hand with the newlinemaintenance inspection works. During the inspection, only visible flaw newlinedetections are noticed.