Abstract
The South African Gauteng region is an economic hub and often highways are congested with traffic. A high-speed railway project commenced operation in 2010 aimed at connecting Tshwane, Johannesburg and the OR Tambo international airport and to alleviate the traffic congestion between the cities and the airport. The system was the first rapid rail in South Africa, and it operates at a commercial speed of 160 km/h. There are proposals to extend the rapid rail network in the region. The aim of the study is to research factors that affect the reliability of the system in operation to establish its performance and to contribute a body of knowledge towards the development and operation of the proposed system.
Literature review on the reliability of similar systems operating in different regions globally was conducted to identify factors that affect the reliability of these systems and measures implemented to improve system reliability. The study applies an imperial exploratory research methodology. Performance data of the system over a period of 5 years was collected from the enterprise management tool of the organization involved. A Weibull distribution analysis was applied to the collected data and the results indicated that the system is in the wear out phase of operation.
A quantitative study was conducted using the pareto analysis on service affecting failures to identify subsystems that contribute majority of the service affecting failures. The study found that the rolling stock, signalling system and operation errors contributed 80% of the service affecting failures. The reliability of the rolling stock was computed using the mean distance between failures and the reliability of the signalling system was computed over the period of analysis. Failure modes, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA) of the rolling stock and signalling system were conducted to identify the risk of failure of critical components. It was found that factors that affect the reliability of the system include component failure, maintenance practices, environmental factors, human factors, and design and operation compatibility. It is recommended that the organization should invest in automated data collection and consider implementing a reliability centered maintenance strategy based on a component predictive failure model. The organization should also focus on reviewing training for operations staff and improving the fault-finding process. It is recommended that a feasibility study into modification of the cabin door system and installation of a lightning protection for the signaling system should be considered.