A methodology for prioritising between different maintenance actions in the railway infrastructure is presented. The consistency of the prioritisation and the feasibility of the applied methodology are investigated. Criteria describing the diverse effects of maintenance are developed and presented to track managers, together with a set of maintenance actions that are specific for each track manager. Then, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is used to obtain preferences for the criteria and for the different actions. The track managers roughly agree on the prioritisation of criteria. However, the discrepancies between the results of the two ways employed to elicit the preferences for the actions are rather large. The track managers consider it easy to understand the rationale of the AHP and to enter their preferences. It is proposed that preferences are recorded as they are in this paper, in order to document the rationale of the decisions and to facilitate mutual learning among decision-makers and over time.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a methodology based on vignettes and its application to measure the consistency of railway delay attribution, in order to report on experiences of using the methodology in this context.Design/methodology/approachA survey is used to ask personnel performing delay attribution about how they would report the delays described in the vignettes of the survey. The development, application and analysis of the survey are thoroughly described here.FindingsThe methodology proved useful for measuring the consistency of delay attribution.Research limitations/implicationsThe methodology also supports a further investigation of the accuracy of delay attribution systems.Practical implicationsA survey similar to the one presented here can be used by railways to estimate the accuracy of their delay attribution systems, as well as to continuously improve them. Changes to computer software and training will improve the delay attribution system under study.Originality/valueBy investigating current delay attribution practices using surveys based on vignettes, drawbacks of the current delay attribution system can be identified and remedied. The methodology is applicable to a wide class of deviation attribution applications.

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