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Abstract
Transportation is the means to carry people and goods from one place to another, and
has been very important in each stage of human civilization. Therefore, engineers have
developed the transportation network day-by-day, aiming to provide for people’s
comfort, needs and safety in the most sustainable way possible.
In the past, transport organisations generally concentrated on the construction and
expansion of transport networks, but they have gradually moved from a focus on
expansion to intelligently maintaining the existing assets in recent years. For this reason,
degradation models have been developed in many transport management systems, with
the aim of assisting track maintenance planning and reducing the costs of asset
management.
Melbourne has the largest operating tram network in the world with 250 kilometers of
double track (Yarra Trams, 2017a). Melbourne’s tram network is operated by the Yarra
Trams organisation under franchise from the government of Victoria, Australia (Yarra
Trams, 2017a). Yarra Trams organises the news, maps, timetables, service changes, real-
time tram arrival information, and the construction and maintenance of the tram
infrastructure.
Many variables are involved in ensuring that Melbourne tram system operates to safe
and best practice standards. One of the main elements influencing the tram system is the
track infrastructure. The condition of the track infrastructure affects network operations
either directly or indirectly. In order to keep the track infrastructure in its best condition
over the longest possible time period, a maintenance plan is required. This plan is
essential for such a large network as it can help in recovering the serviceability of tram
tracks from faults and damage and prevent further wear of the tracks.
Currently, manual inspections are still used to identify track maintenance activities
across the network. These inspections identify the status of the tram tracks, whether the
tracks need maintenance, the required level of maintenance and the time period needed
to maintain the damaged tracks. Since the inspections are done by a number of
maintenance teams, human errors are likely to occur. In addition, inaccurate prediction
of the maintenance time frame and mistakes in the inspection and detection of track