Railway turnouts are a necessary part of railway infrastructure, used throughout the network to direct trains to the desired path, thus ensuring the smooth running of every train. Their reliability and availability is therefore an essential element for the efficiency of the entire network. However, the combination of movable parts, some of which with reducing cross sections and structural integrity, discontinuities in the rail geometry and variability in the system support stiffness leads to high failure rates compared with plain line track and to very high maintenance and renewal costs. In this paper, the database of failures occurred in the GB network between 2011 and 2017 has been statistically investigated with the support of free-text analysis techniques to interrogate the comments provided by the on-track maintenance staff. The key failures and possible causes have been identified for both the switch and crossing panels as well as areas for future research to support the development of the next generation of switches and crossings.

铁路道岔是铁路基础设施的必要组成部分，在整个网络中用于将火车引导至所需路径，从而确保每列火车的平稳行驶。因此，它们的可靠性和可用性对于整个网络的效率至关重要。但是，可移动部件的组合（其中一些具有减小的横截面和结构完整性），轨道几何形状的不连续性以及系统支撑刚度的可变性导致与纯线轨道相比故障率高，并且维护和更新成本非常高。在本文中，在自由文本分析技术的支持下，对2011年至2017年在GB网络中发生的故障数据库进行了统计调查，以询问在轨维护人员提供的意见。