A data-driven prioritisation framework to mitigate maintenance impact on passengers during metro line operation

The application of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques may lead to significant improvements in different aspects of rail sector. Considering asset management and maintenance, AI can improve data analysis and asset status forecasting and decision-making processes, fostering predictive and prescriptive maintenance strategies. A prescriptive approach should be able to predict future scenarios as well as to suggest a course of actions. Nevertheless, the decision-making in rail asset management is often based on the classical asset-oriented approach, concentrating on the function of the asset itself as a main key performance indicator (KPI), whereas a user-oriented approach could lead to improved performance in terms of level of service. This paper is aimed at integrating the passengers’ perspective in the decision-making process for asset management to mitigate the impact that service interruptions may have on the final users. A data-driven prioritisation framework is developed to prioritise maintenance interventions taking into account asset status and criticality. In particular, a three-step approach is proposed, which focuses on the analysis of passenger data to evaluate the failure impact on the service, the analysis of alarms and anomalies to evaluate the asset status, and the suggestion of maintenance interventions. The proposed approach is applied to the maintenance of the metro line M5 in the Italian city of Milan. Results show the usefulness of the proposed approach to support infrastructure managers and maintenance operators in making decisions regarding the priority of maintenance activities, reducing the risk of critical failures and service interruptions.