Is it possible to increase vehicle availability, reduce noise and reduce maintenance cost by combined actions? By purchasing the service of providing high quality real time track data the Public transport administration of Stockholm foresees great opportunities.
In March 2017 the Public transport administration signed a contract for providing the service of real time track monitoring with the supplier Tyréns. The service includes full responsibility for providing high quality data, including installation of the system called QTMS, data analysis, maintenance of the system and providing a user interface. The purchase was performed as a fully commercial tender process based on functional requirements focusing on the performance of the service. The Transport administration has received funding from Infra Sweden 2030, for the commercial introduction of track maintenance.
The system is mounted on seven ordinary vehicles used in the daily traffic operation; hence there is no need for additional measurement vehicles or special measurement routes. The service is now operational for the whole Stockholm metro-system, providing daily updates of the track status for a number of parameters indicating the track maintenance status:
- Track roughness
- Wheel slip
- Severe wear
- Curve squeal
- Pad stiffness
- Rail defects
All parameters can be monitored in a viewer showing the whole system, with possibility to zoom in to a resolution of 25 m long track sections. Each position and parameter may be shown by a time history, day by day, to overview changes and thereby plan maintenance activities. The system may also trigger alarms based on thresholds for each parameter, for the case sudden changes appear.