Prix LITRA 2024: Railway Network – Those Who Consolidate Work More Efficiently
The federal government invests 3.5 billion Swiss francs annually in the maintenance and demand-driven modernization of railway infrastructure. By consolidating work schedules, maintenance and repair projects can be carried out more cost-effectively and in a customer-friendly manner. This is the central idea of a bachelor's thesis from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, which was awarded the Prix LITRA 2024.
By Benedikt Vogel, freelance author
Maintaining and expanding railway infrastructure is an ongoing task to preserve and further enhance the attractiveness of rail transport. In recent years, alongside extensive expansion measures, the focus of public interest has increasingly shifted towards maintaining the existing infrastructure. The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) alone manage around 20,000 construction sites each year. The majority of these serve maintenance purposes, while 1,500 to 2,000 involve repair and renewal projects. The enormous financial and logistical effort is necessary to keep the SBB infrastructure in good condition. According to the 2023 Network Condition Report, the overall state is currently rated as "good to adequate."
Optimally planning maintenance work
The Swiss South Eastern Railway (SOB), based in St. Gallen, faces a similar challenge, albeit on a smaller scale. The railway company operates Switzerland's third-largest standard gauge network, with 145 kilometers of track and 182 switches. The infrastructure has a replacement value of 2.2 billion Swiss francs, about half of which is accounted for by 192 bridges and 19 tunnels. Through targeted investments, the need for track renewal, identified about ten years ago, has since been completely eliminated. Today, the SOB network is in "good" condition.
"Unlike SBB, SOB has a relatively manageable infrastructure network. Nevertheless, the financial and logistical challenge of optimally planning maintenance measures—such as regular upkeep and major repair projects—remains significant," says Livio Andina. The 25-year-old portfolio manager at SOB is responsible for the life cycles of tracks, power lines, barriers, railway structures, platforms, information boards, and other railway facilities. In the summer of 2024, he completed his bachelor's thesis in the Transportation Systems program at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. As part of this work, he developed a software tool that calculates whether it's more economical to carry out two maintenance projects separately or to consolidate them into a single project.
Consolidation Often Effective
Combining multiple projects is desirable because maintenance and repair work is increasing, while the available time slots are limited, as they must minimize disruptions to rail traffic. So far, consolidation of repair projects has been done cautiously and without a strict methodology. One reason for this hesitation is the economic challenge of either replacing a facility prematurely—before the end of its life cycle—or extending its use beyond the intended time frame, which risks costly failures.
The innovative tool is designed to weigh the financial pros and cons of consolidating projects and then suggest the most cost-effective approach and optimal timing for implementation. The tool uses the investment plan as its data foundation, which lists all planned repair projects, including the implementation timeline, planning status, and costs. It then links this information with data from the asset database, which includes construction year, replacement value, lifespan, and other key metrics for all railway facilities managed by the infrastructure operator. Based on any chosen reference project, the tool suggests all planned investment projects suitable for consolidation.
Successfully Validated with Case Studies
To validate the new planning tool, author Livio Andina applied it to four ongoing repair and modernization projects at SOB. "In three cases, the tool recommended consolidation, and in one case, it advised against it; the tool’s decisions matched those of SOB's independent planning experts," says Livio Andina. For instance, the tool consolidated the renewal of track and power supply on the Samstagern – Schindellegi line, but did not include the renovation of the public facilities and signal box at Schindellegi station in the consolidation.
The case studies confirmed the tool’s suitability for its intended use. Additionally, the tool works much faster than humans: it produces results within minutes, whereas planners, with minimal digital support, may need several days for similar assessments.
Not All Criteria Covered
The case studies also revealed the tool’s limitations in its current configuration: in practice, decisions about whether to consolidate projects involve additional criteria that the tool has not yet accounted for. For example, the renewal of rail power systems and track infrastructure on the Biberbrugg – Einsiedeln route will be consolidated, but carried out a year earlier than the tool recommended. The reason is that a double-track expansion with a line closure is planned on a connecting route for 2027–2028, making it sensible to execute the work on the Biberbrugg – Einsiedeln line in the same year.
Livio Andina would like to further develop the tool. To achieve full practical relevance, it would need to consider not only the economic aspects related to asset life cycles but also factors such as regional operational restrictions, the extended duration of consolidated projects, logistical issues like space requirements, and the availability of human and material resources. It would also be desirable for the tool to increasingly take into account the actual condition of assets, rather than just estimating their state based on their usage to date.
SBB Works with Maintenance Clusters
At SBB, consolidating maintenance work is already common practice. Under the UP 2.0 program, maintenance tasks are grouped within so-called "maintenance windows." "Our goal is to carry out 50 percent of maintenance work within these maintenance clusters," says SBB spokesperson Moritz Weisskopf, adding, "For investment projects, the medium-term goal is to implement them simultaneously each year in four to six so-called cluster projects, thereby consolidating them. This concept is not entirely new—what’s new is the systematic approach to the methodology." The ideas Livio Andina developed in his bachelor's thesis are highly welcomed by SBB. "We are eager to study his work and draw inspiration from it," emphasizes SBB.
About Livio Andina
After completing a commercial apprenticeship, Livio Andina pursued the four-year part-time degree program in "Transportation Systems" (now "Mobility Science") at the School of Engineering at ZHAW in Winterthur, graduating with a bachelor's degree in June 2024. During his studies, Livio joined the Swiss South Eastern Railway (SOB) for an internship, where he became familiar with the topic of asset preservation, which later became the subject of his bachelor’s thesis, supervised by Dr. Thomas Herrmann from the Institute of Data Analysis and Process Design. "The Prix LITRA is a recognition of the effort behind my work," says the 25-year-old rail expert.
About the Prix LITRA 2024: Between Maintenance, Long-Distance Travel, and Individual Behavior
Since 2012, LITRA has been awarding the prestigious public transport prize. This year, three outstanding bachelor's and master's theses from three Swiss universities were recognized, covering topics such as railway infrastructure maintenance, optimizing rail travel in Europe, and our individual habits when choosing the best mode of transport. The Prix LITRA 2024 stands out for its exciting variety of topics.
During the award ceremony, Federal Councillor Albert Rösti addressed this year's winners—Zachary Hansen, Livio Andina, and Matthias García—and thanked them for their contributions to sustainable Swiss mobility.