PrefaceIntroduction and structure of the bookPart I: CONDITIONS and ORGANIZATION1 Rail transport and government 17-532 Rail transport business model 54-693 Infrastructure manager ProRail 70-954 Outsourcing maintenance 96-116Part II: THE ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM5 Essence & growth model AM system 119-1256 AM system & organization 126-1987 Performance 199-2328 Costs 233-2669 Activities, Conditions and Risks 267-27510 Examples of integral AM 276-28011 Benchmarking; ProRail results 281-290Part III: REFLECTION and CLOSURE12 Lessons and future expectations 293-31113 Epilogue 312-316Part IV: EXPLANATIONS and ANNEXES 317-346After reading this book you understand why the infra manager ProRail has started to perform much better for lower costs, and why the rail infra sector in the Netherlands is now a world leader.Asset management of physical assets is relatively new. A first guideline was published in 2004 (PAS 55) and replaced in 2014 by the ISO55000. The standard describes well what is needed for an asset management but gives little practical information about how to organize it, where to start, what the critical milestones are, etc. Cost reduction and performance improvements are promised but it is unclear how they are realized. This book does provide that insight. A case study on the development of ProRail, the rail infrastructure manager of the Netherlands, forms the basis.Development started in the 1990s when the rail sector was radically reformed. The rail infrastructure was split off from the railway company NS and at the same time the engineering office and maintenance company were privatized. Within a few years, a traditional infrastructure manager with four thousand employees transformed into an independent infrastructure manager with eight hundred employees. This book is about the way in which ProRail has built an asset management system from the ground up. It describes the essence and principles, the organization and required instruments, the results achieved and the influence of the circumstances and concludes with seven lessons learned.