Institute of Railway Research (IRR)

Welcome to the University of Huddersfield Institute of Railway Research (IRR)

Awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for "research and development that has brought significant improvements to the railway industry”, the Institute of Railway Research is a world class centre for railway engineering research and innovation. Our work has helped protect the railway’s most expensive assets, provide design assurance, reduce operating and maintenance costs, whilst increasing reliability and safety. We support an environmental and sustainability agenda with themes such as new materials and methods to increase asset life, encouraging modal shift from road to rail in developing mass transit solutions and improving the performance and competitiveness of rail freight. Our work seeks to combat the impact of climate change through more resilient assets and reduce the cost of electrification for a lower carbon railway.

Our Research

test rig

Research capabilities

The IRR is setup with three core teams handling a broad range of projects from long term fundamental research to short term industry problem-solving studies and applied industrial R&D.

Full-Scale Bogie Rolling Contact, Adhesion and Braking Rig

Publications/articles

Discover the various outputs of the Institute here

Find out more about the IRR

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Our Team

Our research staff are creative and innovative practitioners who have wide industrial and research experience.

Full-Scale Bogie Rolling Contact, Adhesion and Braking Rig

Facilities and equipment

The Institute of Railway Research (IRR) has invested heavily in its facilities and equipment and has just opened a new £4.5M laboratory.

Train on tracks

PhD Opportunities

View the PhD opportunities available with the IRR.

IRR meeting

Contact Us

Contact the IRR

Laura Annie Willson Building

Events

Learn more about our upcoming events

researchers working with a test rig

Services to industry

The Institute of Railway Research provides a range of industrial R&D and consultancy services to the railway industry in the UK and worldwide

high speed train

Centre for Innovation in Rail

Advancing technology and business process in the railway supply chain

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UKRRIN Centre of Excellence in Rolling Rock

UKRRIN (the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network) is a new initiative designed to create a powerful collaboration between academia and industry.

Smart Rolling Stock Maintenance Research Facility

Smart Rolling Stock Maintenance Research Facility

  • Robotics & Automation
  • Optimised scheduling
  • RCM & Prognostics
  • Digitally enabled workforce
tram lines through city

Downloads

Download our Manchester wheel-rail contact benchmark files here

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