Experts at the University of Huddersfield are playing a central role in a £680,000 project designed to transform the maintenance of rail vehicles — and their new techniques will be tested on trains operated by London Underground.

The university is home to the Institute of Railway Research (IRR), where Adam Bevan and Xiaocheng Ge are working on an EU-funded programme called Smart Maintenance and the Rail Traveller Experience (SMaRTE).

This has two main themes: how to make rolling-stock maintenance more effective, and the human factors that persuade people to choose rail travel.

While the University of Leeds focuses on the second theme, Huddersfield’s IRR is looking at maintenance and systems engineering matters.

The conventional approach to rolling stock is to carry out scheduled maintenance that includes visual inspection to check the condition of components, but new technologies are being adopted that allow the condition of systems and components to be continuously monitored.

Having the data available to predict the onset of problems can lead to early intervention and more-effective rolling-stock maintenance.

The IRR researchers are reviewing existing maintenance strategies and condition monitoring techniques.

They will then develop new condition-based maintenance techniques and produce a prototype system that will be tested in collaboration with London Underground.

SMaRTE is a two-year project under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. It has partners in countries that include Portugal, Belgium, Italy and Sweden.