RAILONOMICS® - Determining investment strategies for railway signalling through simulation

Abstract

The economical effect of an investment strategy in railway signalling is defined by the costs and revenues generated by the chosen system over its lifetime. While the cost positions relevant for an infrastructure manager can all be expressed in the performance figure Life Cycle Costs (LCC), only part of the revenue positions can be expressed monetarily. Therefore, it is necessary to also include non-monetary revenue positions when deciding on which railway signalling system to choose. Since most of the cost and revenue positions are closely linked to the system operation, the idea of using information from railway operation simulation software has been evolved. The Institute of Transportation Systems has therefore implemented a software link between the simulation software RailSys® and a new developed Cost-Benefit-Tool. With the latter the relevant life cycle cost and revenue positions of the evaluated signalling system and scenario can be captured, calculated and analysed. This simulation-based evaluation of investment strategies for railway signalling is part of the RAILONOMICS® concept. RAILONOMICS® enables infrastructure managers to develop efficient investment and maintenance strategies in a structured manner.