Identification and cause isolation of Dutch rail dispatching system failure notifications

Abstract

This research assesses if, and how, the disruption-management process of the Dutch rail infrastructure manager ProRail could be improved with better use of additional information. Through mapping the system elements in a fault tree (FT), the causes of a failure notification can be visualised. After identifying other effects for all failing elements, the side effects of the main failure notification can be mapped. The side effects are reformulated in identifying questions for an event tree (ET). When, in the case of a failure, the ET is followed, the cause of the failure can be better identified and isolated. The methodology was tested for a general multidisciplinary ‘power supply disturbed’ notification. This study shows that the approach can contribute to more effective disruption management. In current practice, the specific cause, location and mechanic discipline are unknown beforehand. The approach presented here can contribution to clarifying those unknowns by using side effect of PRL failure notifications.