Crossovers, possessions and work bundling

The current track layout of the Athus-Meuse line, and in particular the number and location of its crossovers, combined with the timetable in force, no longer allows single-line working possessions to be granted without a significant impact on commercial services.

Infrabel is therefore considering building new crossovers, able to ease the constraints known today.

The assignment assesses the economic value of these additional crossovers. In effect, it builds a business case for the works.

In a second stage, it explores how the analysis method can be extended to any potential new crossover, anywhere on the network.

The approach consisted in:

• modelling and simulating the maintainer’s organisation;
• modelling and simulating maintenance economics (work output rates, unit costs);
• simulating the effects on operational robustness;
• establishing the overall economic equation, on a probabilistic basis.