Increasing Asset Lifecycle through the application of Innovative Technology Stirling Kimkeran – Head of Technology and Development Solutions

Engineering and Technology Solutions Part of the Balfour Beatty Rail UK 300 professional engineering staff Core business is the application of technology to improve infrastructure asset management and design

Asset Management Challenges Superficially rail infrastructure is a simple engineering asset, however… One with high utilisation demands and no redundancy It can only be maintained during very limited and unsocial time periods As it ages a good predictive understanding and plan is needed, or time can run out It is geographically widespread, often in tunnel and with limited access Assets have to be maintained in-situ and cannot be returned to a depot or factory Multiple simultaneous degradation modes require different methods of assessment and competencies in repair All of these challenges make for expensive maintenance

Life Cycle Costs Around 65% of the life cycle cost of railway infrastructure is associated with operation and maintenance, over what is normally a very prolonged period. t 30 - 50 years Cos t s Planning Realisation, Operation, maintenance Removal 2 % 65 % 28 % 5 %

Maintenance Cost Variation Harmonised benchmarking results from a range of rail operators in Europe show: Its expensive Average cost Eur73.9k /km 50/50 renewals/maintenance Very variable Best 50% less! Worst 100% more! Huge scope to improve Ref: UIC LICB Benchmarking Study

Improved Asset Management Business Case Results have shown that some of the best performing railways achieve this through having better information with which to drive the maintenance process Asset management typically costs about 2% to 3% of the cost of maintenance Properly implemented it can deliver a 10% to 20% maintenance cost reduction ………….a significant return on investment

Why change? – improve safety Reduced requirement for inspection staff to be on the track : doing frequent visual inspection by replacing cyclic maintenance with condition based maintenance. Validation that overnight maintenance has been correctly completed. Reduced risk of sudden unidentified degradation. Reduced reliance on the “Mark 1 human eyeball”.

Why change? – improve efficiency Autonomous monitoring removes the need for frequent inspection by patrolling staff. Improved understanding asset performance: enables maintenance to be planned when optimally required eliminating unnecessary interventions. improves planning to avoid premature replacement of assets. Earlier identification enables: maintenance at an earlier stage, to reduce the scale and complexity of repairs required. assessment of overall “fault portfolio”, interventions can be.

Why change? – improve train performance Early identification of faults enables them to be rectified prior to failure and consequential train delays. Elimination of need for additional train-paths for dedicated track recording vehicle runs. Improved track quality reduces ware on vehicle components. Improved track quality reduces the energy needed to run the service.

How do we change? Have a plan … Change requires people to alter what they normally do. So its really about people not about technology. Having a clear step by step plan helps to keep people on board.

How do we change? – Develop your model

How do we change? – Make this the new BaU

How do we change? – Be proactive

Technology can be made to work for you …

Get the Fundamentals right Understand your data What you own Where is it What condition its in One version of the truth Standard referencing system for all data fixed as well as operational Invest in getting your asset data “clean” and available in an industry accepted format Have processes in place to ensure data can be maintained easily IT systems are only as good as the data they have been provided Invest in your work force Aging workforce means a lot of domain knowledge is being lost Systems led approach so engineers have 360 understanding of rail asset managment

Autonomous Measurement Systems New track geometry measurement equipment compact and automated to fit to a passenger train Dramatically reduced cost Much more frequent measurement Frequent measurement provides an early indication of developing faults and understanding of deterioration rates This allows for optimal maintenance At an early stage where necessary to prevent failure Where safe, as late as possible to minimise intervention costs or when other work is planned Mandated for all new UK fleets by the DfT TrueTrak selected by both Hitachi and Bombardier Cross Rail are measuring signalling balises and noise

Handling multiple data sources This gives you: A constant data supply With no manual effort Data is for TODAY And every day … A modern approach: Frequent measurement Automated analysis Gives - continuous alerting Gives - continuous trending Lets you implement Change that works for you …

Plain Line Pattern Recognition (PLPR) OmniVision is being used to provide an automated Basic Visual Inspection (BVI) of track for Network Rail’s Plain Line Pattern Recognition project. 5 systems and 1 processing centre Savings of ~ £7M p.a. More efficient and effective use of the work force Condition of asset data automatically reported and is consistent, auditable and accurate