Asset Management of Public Service Escalators

Public service escalators are vital to the continued operation of public service terminals (e.g., airports, railway stations). The traffic profiles are characterised by heaving traffic flows, occurring in surges which coincide with the type of traffic that they serve (e.g., surge of passengers from trains; surge of passengers in an airport). For these reasons, it is important to understand and analyse their availability and reliability, in order to be able to predict future performance, and identify gaps in maintenance or design. The paper starts by discussing the differences between standard escalators and public service escalators, which are dominantly heavy duty. It outlines the differences in the operating environment and the higher performance requirements for the public service escalators and how these necessitate a different design. The paper then discusses the asset management process for these escalator, as applied in a public transport context. Six stages are involved in asset management cycle: Data gathering, analysis of relationships and trends, modelling, developing a plan, appraisal of the options and implementation. The cycle is a continuously iterative one, and the process keeps on repeating to keep up to date with any new developments. The paper discusses each of these stages in detail, outlining a general methodology for data gathering, and how appraisal is used in different applications.