UK university to develop asset management tool for light railways and tramways

Experts at the University of Huddersfield have won more than US$208,000 funding to develop a software-based asset management tool that will enable light railway operators to calculate the most appropriate rail wear limits for their system. This would mean longer intervals between maintenance and replacement, reducing disruption to passengers and costs to the operators, while maintaining safety levels.
December 22, 2015 Read time: 2 mins

Experts at the University of Huddersfield have won more than US$208,000 funding to develop a software-based asset management tool that will enable light railway operators to calculate the most appropriate rail wear limits for their system.

This would mean longer intervals between maintenance and replacement, reducing disruption to passengers and costs to the operators, while maintaining safety levels.

The research is being carried out at the university’s Institute of Railway Research, which has developed expertise in computer modelling of the interface between rail vehicles and track.

This will play a major part in the new project and there is also on-site collaboration with some of the UK’s busiest tramway systems.

The project is funded through UKTram’s Low Impact Light Rail scheme, supported by Innovate UK’s SBRI programme. The project is headed by Dr Adam Bevan, who is the IRR’s Head of Enterprise. It includes Professor Jay Jaiswal, a metallurgist with a speciality in rail steels.

The project, to develop a software tool that will enable tramway and light rail operators to develop more realistic maintenance schedules, was one of fifteen projects awarded funding for a feasibility study. Following an assessment of the outcomes of this work, funding was awarded to progress to the demonstrator phase and trial the developed tools in real-life situations. This phase is due for completion in October 2016 and will deliver a software-based asset management tool and guidance document based on the operating conditions of the specific network.  It will enable infrastructure managers to arrive at the optimum rail wear limits and to select the appropriate grades of rail steel for their systems.

The developed tool will be made available to UKTram members and the University’s Institute of Railway Research will provide technical consultancy to customise it for the specific conditions of the network.  The software and supporting technical consultancy will also be offered on a commercial basis to the large numbers of tramways and light railways around the world.

GIS/ Mapping & Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • Smart Spanish city trials cell-based traffic management
    November 7, 2013
    David Crawford reports on an urban electronic nervous system. The northern Spanish city of Santander – historically a port - is now an emerging technology showcase attracting global attention as a prototype for a medium-sized smart city of the future. In a move to determine the optimal use of available data, it is creating a de-facto experimental laboratory for sensor and mobile phone-based urban traffic management and environmental monitoring innovations.
    Read More
  • European tunnel upgrades following new safety legislation
    August 20, 2015
    Across Europe there is a very mixed picture of compliance to latest safety standards for road tunnels. Best practice has emerged, however, in the wake of European legislation. Jon Masters reports High profile fatal fires following accidents in the Mont Blanc, Tauern and Gotthard tunnels prompted the 2004 European Union Directive 2004/54 on road tunnel safety. This meant all EU member states would have to meet new standards of safety in road tunnels by 30 April 2014. The Directive applied to all tunnels over
    Read More
  • UK railways to benefit from information upgrade
    January 3, 2013
    More than US$13.44 million funding will be spent by train companies to boost passenger information at stations across the UK. The funding will pay for a national roll-out to link customer information screens at stations to the latest live real time train information data, fed from a database developed and maintained by train companies. The upgrade will be rolled out in around 2,000 National Rail stations. The first stations will be switched on in summer 2014 and the whole project is anticipated to be comp
    Read More
  • Lidar: recipes for success
    March 28, 2022
    Lidar is being deployed all over the world - and you can even read a cookbook on the subject...
    Read More

Highlighted Content