Area of Excellence

In order to strengthen Swedish railway research and the Swedish university environments, Trafikverket, together with the universities, has developed the direction for railway research for the period 2021-2030. Ten areas of excellence have been defined where the universities collaborates and build up knowledge within their respective excellence areas.

JVTC at Luleå University of Technology has been given responsibility for excellence area 8 - Operation and maintenance, due to the research and innovation that has been conducted in the center for many years.

Excellence-creating projects will be conducted in collaboration with other academy parties according to a business plan approved by Trafikverket and participation will continue in European projects within Shift2Rail and future R&I program Europe´s Rail.

Excellence area 8 shall implement applicable research, education and innovation in operation and maintenance to strengthen the railway system, ie. infrastructure and rolling stock.

Reliability is a basic necessity for the Swedish railway system's sustainability, reliability, robustness, punctuality and capacity. The operational safety of the railway system consists of its functional safety, maintenance and maintenance safety. Achieving a high degree of operational reliability requires optimization of these three aspects, throughout the life cycle of the railway system.

Research in operation and maintenance technology focuses on optimizing a system's operational reliability during its lifetime. This is done through streamlining of the operation and maintenance processes through appropriate maintenance strategies such as predetermined, condition-based, predictive or corrective maintenance as well as fact-based decision support.

Railway systems in general and the Swedish railway system in particular, including infrastructure and rolling stock, are a complex technical system with a large number of components and a broad heterogeneous stakeholder picture. The complex composition of the system increases the complexity of the analysis and optimization process.

JVTC / LTU is also involved in other areas of excellence, mainly:

• Area 2: Wheels and braking systems
• Area 3: Track technology
• Area 4: Art and land construction / Constructions (focus on bridges)
• Area 10: Railway system

The Swedish university environments that collaborates in Trafikverket's areas of excellence are:

• Luleå Railway Technical Center (JVTC), Luleå University of Technology
• Charmec, Chalmers
• Järnvägsgruppen, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
• KAJT industry program (KTH, Linköping University, Blekinge tekniska högskola, RISE, Uppsala University, Lund University, VTI)