Switches & crossings (S&Cs) are vital assets as they allow for increased railway capacity by introducing flexibility and connectivity in railway networks. At the same time this makes them critical, and they can cause major delays and disruptions if they are not well maintained. This motivates studies to improve maintenance strategies of S&Cs, considering both life-cycle costs (LCC) of the assets and other additional socio-economic costs (e.g., transportation costs for passengers and freight customers). In this paper, the interdependence between deterioration mechanisms, maintenance activities, and expected LCC (including transportation costs) is investigated using a combination of mechanical and econometric modelling.

The interrelation between the degradation of contact geometry and track settlement is analysed using simulations of dynamic vehicle–turnout interaction. Changes in the timing of the associated maintenance measures (crossing repair welding and tamping) are performed to investigate the impact on damage modes. This is then linked to LCC and transportation costs, which requires a distribution between preventive and corrective activities with respect to the simulated maintenance strategy. This relationship is investigated by means of regression modelling: 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆=𝑓(𝑷𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆,𝑿)

where Corrective and Preventive represent the number of failures and the scheduled actions to prevent these failures, respectively. 𝑿 holds variables related to the traffic (volume, type of traffic, axle load, etc.) and the infrastructure (type of S&Cs, etc.).