The paper discusses a procedure for systematic and holistic (considering most of the factors influencing the rail degradation process) analysis and prediction of rail failures so that rail maintenance can be performed effectively. The current rail maintenance and reporting procedure followed by Banverket (Swedish National Rail Administration) for the Swedish Iron Ore Line is also described. The paper will also discuss on the improvement areas in Banverket's database management system highlighting what to measure and record and the reason behind it.This paper will help the infrastructure managers to better understand the existing rail maintenance procedure, and the improvements which can be incorporated in the existing procedure to make it more effective.