LCC approach for High-speed ballastless tracks

An approach of life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) for high-speed ballastless tracks in Spain is carried out in this document based on an approximation of the present value behaviour through the Electre II Multi criteria method. A review of other LCC researches has been done analysing their results in order to adapt previous experimental tracks costs to the present study which is focused on construction and maintenance costs in Spain. Even though several ballastless systems are introduced and analysed in terms of costs, and environmental impacts; only four of them are deeply compared with ballasted tracks: Japanese Shinkansen, Rheda 2000, EDILON embedded rail system and LVT. The comparisons are established using ratios (ballastless/ballasted track costs) instead of total costs due to their lack of validation among countries and years. Furthermore, two case studies have been presented: one using 3% as discount rate which favours ballastless choice and another using 6% which in contrast, favours the traditional option. Last chapter aims to compare results from the presented method with proper present value calculations during 60 years in the Ballasted Madrid-Seville line (Spain)