Assessing Railway Maintenance Intervals and Slow Order Management in a Low Traffic Climate-Sensitive Freight Railway Corridor

The impacts of permafrost thaw on northern railways can lead to temporary speed restrictions (“slow orders”) imposed to mitigate operational risk until permanent remediation works are completed. These slow orders cause unpredictability in nominal train operating speeds and ultimately affect the reliability of long/heavy trains operating across successive slow-ordered segments. Little is known about how slow orders should be managed on low-traffic railways subject to events such as permafrost thaw, which cause track degradation independent of accumulated tonnage or elapsed time.
This work will leverage track geometry data and track maintenance data to develop a data-driven framework to help low-traffic freight railways manage slow order occurrences and improve network reliability. The results will advance railway carriers’ understanding of effective slow order management under evolving climate conditions and will provide railways with transferable tools to forecast unplanned maintenance.

Faculty Supervisor:

Jonathan Regehr

Student:

Partner:

Hudson Bay Railway Corporation

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Transportation and warehousing

University:

University of Manitoba

Program: