The 2nd Workshop of the URITMIS project will take place as a side event of CETRA 2026 conference. The workshop will be held on 29 May 2026, from 13:30 to 17:00, at Hotel Bluesun Elaphusa, Bol, Brač (Hall C). This second event is following the momentum established by the highly successful first workshop in 2024.
URITMIS project – Urban railway infrastructure predictive maintenance system based on monitoring of vibro-acoustic track properties – brings together a young and ambitious team of experts dedicated to advancing predictive maintenance for tramway and urban railway infrastructure. The project focuses on long-term monitoring of infrastructure faults and the development of maintenance models based on vibration-based measurements collected from in-service tramway vehicles.
A central feature of this year’s workshop is that one of the contributions is also part of the main CETRA 2026 conference programme as a keynote lecture: “Onboard monitoring for intelligent assessment of railway tracks” by Assoc. Prof. Abdollah Malekjafarian. This keynote lecture addresses advanced onboard monitoring strategies for intelligent assessment of railway tracks, and it sets the tone for the workshop’s emphasis on real-world data, monitoring technologies, and decision-support tools. The abstract and more information on this keynote lecture can be found here.
The first part of the workshop agenda showcases expert contributions on machine learning methods for predicting 3D wheel-rail contact forces in hybrid vehicle-structure interaction, FEM-based diagnostics for turnouts aimed at smart condition assessment, smartphone sensor data for tram infrastructure monitoring, sustainable ballast track design for noise and vibration mitigation, and assessment of dynamic impact forces generated by wheel flats.
The second part of the workshop presents the broader URITMIS project framework and ongoing research results. It covers vibration-based predictive maintenance of urban railway infrastructure and vibroacoustic characterisation of ballastless tram tracks. Additional topics include the experimental setup and instrumentation of a full-scale ballasted railway track test section, as well as monitoring of scour and soil-structure interaction in pile-supported rail infrastructure using vibration-based digital twins. Further contributions address track instrumentation for digital twin development in urban slab track structures and machine learning techniques for long-term condition monitoring of tramway tracks.
Building on the strong foundation created by the first workshop in 2024, the 2nd URITMIS Workshop will once again serve as a platform for knowledge exchange, discussion, and collaboration among researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of railway infrastructure, monitoring, dynamics, and intelligent maintenance.
The full CETRA 2026 conference programme can be found here.
We are looking forward to another inspiring exchange of knowledge, new research insights, and continued collaboration within the URITMIS project and the wider scientific and professional community.