Keywords: railway system, maintenance, deregulation, performance-based contracts, contracting, competitive tendering, Sweden.

The deregulation of the Swedish railway system started in 1988 with the vertical separation of train operations from the railway infrastructure, shortly afterwards followed by public procurement of train operations. Contracting of maintenance followed in 2001 upon the split-up of the infrastructure manager into a client and contractor. The purpose of introducing contracting was to increase efficiency. The present study investigates, by collecting primary data at the actor level, how the maintenance of the Swedish railway system has been affected by contracting. The results suggest that the current design of railway maintenance contracts motivates a short-term maintenance perspective and a preference on the part of contractors for corrective maintenance. Further consequences are an insecure work situation for railway workers, the replacement of specialized machines with standard machinery and a loss of competence. The consequences are leading to a deteriorating railway infrastructure. To improve the situation, the infrastructure manager needs systematically to try out alternatives, of which a non-exhaustive list has been presented in this paper, to find empirical evidence for a successful concept.

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