One major prerequisite for an effective implementation and innovation process is the enablement and provision of a collaborative environment. A common area for multi-organisational collaboration together with a technology platform, enabling data sharing and Big Data Analytics, has been developed called ‘Testbed Railway’ with a corresponding framework ‘Railway 4.0’. Testbed Railway can be used to strengthen the railway industry's adaptability and competitiveness by developing and providing a testbed for research and innovation in the rail industry, nationally and internationally.

Globally, railway is experiencing a major technology transformation (or paradigm shift), triggered by the enhanced utilisation of digital technology. This technological transformation affects not only the technical systems, i.e. railway infrastructure and rolling stock, but also regulations, organisations, processes,and individuals. Hence, hardware, software, but also liveware (i.e. humans) are affected. Today, the digitalisation of railway is characterised by digital services. There are also a range of challenges, e.g. data acquisition,transformation, modelling, processing, visualisation, safety, security, quality, and information assurance. To deal with these challenges, the railway industry needs to define strategies, which enable a smooth transformation of the existing configuration to a digitalised system. Digital railway requires a holistic change management approach based on system-of-systems thinking and a set of appropriate technologies and methodologies. The railway digitalisation strategy should be based on systematic risk management that address aspects of, e.g., information security, traffic safety and project risk. In addition, managing changes for a digitalised railway effectively and efficiently also requires a framework for aspects such as needs finding, requirement identification, and impact of changes for individual, teams and organisation. In this work a major case studywithin the ePilot, has been performed in context of the operation and maintenance processes of the Swedish railway. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a framework for implementing innovations and driving change in a digitalised railway.

Data of sufficient quality, quantity and validity constitute a sometimes overlooked basis for eMaintenance. Missing data, heterogeneous data types, calibration problems, or non-standard distributions are common issues of operation and maintenance data. Railway track geometry data used for maintenance planning exhibit all the above issues. They also have unique features stemming from their collection by measurement cars running along the railway network. As the track is a linear asset, measured geometry data need to be precisely located to be useful. However, since the sensors on the measurement car are moving along the track, the observations’ geographical sampling positions come with uncertainty. Another issue is that different seasons and othertime restrictions (e.g. related to the timetable) prohibit regular sampling. Hence, prognostics related to remaining useful life (RUL) are challenging since most forecasting methods require a fixed sampling frequency.

This paper discusses methods for data cleaning, data condensation and data extraction from large datasets collected by measurement cars. We discuss missing data replacement, dealing with autocorrelation or cross-correlation, and consequences of not fulfilling methodological pre-conditions such as estimating probabilities of failures using data that do not follow the assumed distributions or data that are dependent. We also discuss outlier detection, dealing with data coming from multiple distributions, of unknown calibrations and other issues seen in railway track geometry data. We also discuss the consequences of not addressing or mishandling quality issues of such data. 

The degradation processes affecting railway track condition depends both on the resistance of the track and on the stresses subjected to it. Regarding the stresses, both their magnitudes and cycles are of importance when considering the degradation. Furthermore, the stresses have some regularity and variability in the time domain, while the degradation resistance of a track has some spatial regularity as well as variability. In addition, the condition measurements of track may be both irregular and contain measurement errors. Hence, it is challenging to model the condition of track to enable predictions and condition-based maintenance. However, wear prediction models could help to change large parts of the maintenance practice from predominantly corrective to preventive if both the deterministic and the stochastic components of the wear process can be estimated with sufficient accuracy. In this study, one-step-ahead predictions have been used for establishing prognostic models based on repeated measurements of railway track geometry to estimate track wear properties, degradation rates and stochastic behaviour including measurement errors. The prognostic models have then been used for condition assessment and state predictions. Repeated sampling allows for estimations of measurement errors, but the irregular sampling need to be accounted for by interpolation in the time series modelling approach

Maintenance is one approach to manage risk by a reduction of the probability of failure of technical systems and/or the consequences of their failure. However, history has shown that erroneous maintenance also can lead to reduced quality, incidents and accidents with extensive losses.

Today, eMaintenance promises great opportunities for a paradigm shift from a rather narrow condition-based maintenance approach with focus on technical system health to a true risk-based maintenance approach that considers organisational excellence. This is achieved by proper information logistic solutions that address the needs of all stakeholders of the maintenance process, which are possible due to new and innovative Information & Communication Technology (ICT).

However, all opportunities are also linked with some threats, which seldom are highlighted in the case of eMaintenance. In this paper, a risk management framework for evaluation of eMaintenance solutions is proposed. The framework is based on a combination of international standards (e.g. ISO 31000, ISO/IEC 27000, and IEC 60300-3-14) to achieve integrated Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and enable a linkage of eMaintenance to strategic goals of an organisation. The framework is illustrated in the context of the Swedish Rail Administration.

Today‟s society is dependent on an increasing volume of transportation services, which contributes to escalating requirements on economy, dependability, safety, and sustainability of applied transportation systems. When dealing with complex transportation systems with long life cycles, maintenance is fundamental to ensure these critical requirements. The increasing requirements and the technological development have also lead to the emerging approach of eMaintenance, which applies innovative Information & Communication Technology (ICT) to achieve effective information logistics for maintenance purposes. This paper describes the role and development of service-oriented eMaintenance solutions to enable intelligent transportation services and some related research efforts within railway and aviation.