To develop and improve management practitioners in transportation engineering and mainly railway infrastructure and operations. To accomodate rail increasing volumes of dry bulk (Iron ore, Manganes and Coal) demand.
A topic could be: does track deterioration per wagon depend on loaded good type, and, if it does, how should this affect train operations (train length and blocking (composition)) and pricing?
One important research topic with relation to railway infrastructure management is to find ways to assess maintenance quality, especially when managing subcontractors for maintenance. The callenge is to answer if a maintenance activity was effective (has it reached an expected level of improvement) and sustainable (does the improvement last long enough).