Patent Document ID: 9764746
Application ID: 13962310
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method, comprising: logically dividing a railroad network according to spatial and temporal dimensions with respect to historical data collected for the railroad network, the spatial dimensions including line segments of a specified length and the temporal dimensions including inspection run data for inspections performed for each of the line segments over a specified period of time; creating, via a computer processor, a track deterioration model from the historical data, current track conditions collected from one or more data sources, and traffic data; identifying geo-defects occurring at each inspection run from the track deterioration model; analyzing quantified changes in the geo-defects measured at each inspection run; predicting from the quantified changes in the geo-defects, where at least one of the geo-defects is a Class II geo-defect, with an amplitude below a tolerance level of a safety standard, a probability of the least one Class II geo-defect deteriorating into a Class I defect with an amplitude in violation of the safety standard, within a specified period of time, the Class I defect defined as one that is mandated to be repaired upon discovery; upon determining the probability reaches a threshold value, scheduling a repair to remedy the at least one Class II geo-defect within the specified period of time; upon determining the probability does not reach a threshold value, determining a repair decision based on historically determined costs associated with previous comparable repairs; and initiating the repair decision; wherein determining the repair decision comprises minimizing a minimum total expected cost based on the historically determined costs.