Smart Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot

Since privatisation of the British Railway under the Railways Act (1993), parts of the railway infrastructure were sold to corporations, which introduced competition to the British Rail industry. (J D Shires, 1994) Over the years, new corporations are introduced into the British Railways (BR), and with them, they deliver advanced approaches to railway technology.
Train operating companies, such as Trans-Pennine Express, which is owned by FirstGroup, outsource the design, manufacture and maintenance of their rolling stock to a third party company, and in the case of Trans-Pennine Express, this third party is Siemens. The train operator Trans-Pennine Express uses the class 185 rolling stock, which uses moderately modern advancements and trends in technology to maintain and operate their rolling stock. Siemens have various rolling stock depots to maintain their rolling stock across the UK, which incorporate leading edge technologies, with innovation in the approach towards maintaining their rolling stock. (Systems) Scheduled based maintenance and planning isn't the only approach that Siemens use to maintain their class 185 fleet, as they have also adopted condition based maintenance in their infrastructure, which allows a more versatile and efficient approach to maintenance, one which can't be achieved through the use of maintenance periodic scheduling alone.
The Jubilee Line, which is operated by The London Underground, uses the 1996 Tube Stock (96TS), built by Alstom Transportation. (Underground, 2007) The maintenance of this fleet relies solely on maintenance scheduling and planning, with no adoption of current trends. The stock has routine checks and works carried on a periodic basis, and this is improbable to change.
From a scrutinizing point of view, it is apparent that trends in rolling stock maintenance are static in older train operating companies who have older rolling stock and have been operating for a longer period of time. Newer rolling stock has been analysed to use current trends in stock maintenance. It is therefore highly probable that in order for the rolling stock on the British Railways to be maintained with more advanced technology, there needs to be a constant scenario of newer companies operating the railways and using newer rolling stock, with the older rolling stock still using the old ways of maintenance.
This form of maintenance advancement is very ineffective, and there is a potential to transition this so that older rolling stock can be also maintained with current trends in maintenance technology.
The work so far has been focused on the development of a decision making framework for the 96TS of the Jubilee Line using data taken from the various maintenance exam reports undertaken which describes the periodic maintenance activities scheduled to take place on this type of rolling stock. This decision network will provide the opportunity to expedite and augment decision making by providing conceptual structures and principles for integrating cost analysis, economic dimensions and time savings. Furthermore, this decision network will highlight the potential benefits from implementing current trends in smart maintenance, such as condition based maintenance (CBM) techniques, and how integrating CBM with scheduled maintenance planning will help reduce costs and improve efficiency of the maintenance of the 96TS.
With this in mind, older rolling stock can take the step towards using current trends in rolling stock maintenance for the particular benefits mentioned.