From “please stand behind the yellow line” to the familiar “mind the gap”, station announcements are part of every traveller’s experience. Simple messages that, in reality, reflect a far more complex system: railway safety, a key challenge in today’s mobility landscape.
As transport networks and infrastructures become more interconnected, ensuring reliability, passenger safety and risk prevention requires advanced technologies, constant monitoring and strong collaboration between research and industry.
Within this context, students from the Railway Engineering 2 course of the Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering took part in a study visit between Milan and Florence, experiencing first-hand some of the most advanced solutions in the field.
The programme began with a journey on board the high-speed diagnostic train Diamante 2.0, a cutting-edge platform used to continuously monitor railway infrastructure. During the trip, students observed advanced measurement systems based on sensors and high-precision data acquisition, capable of detecting early signs of faults and irregularities along the network.
The visit continued in Florence, at the Experimental Railway Dynamics Laboratories in Osmannoro, a European centre of excellence for research on rolling stock. Here, students explored how railway vehicles are tested and analysed, with a focus on dynamics, structural behaviour and acoustics, all crucial aspects for ensuring comfort, reliability and safety.
One of the highlights was access to the largest semi-anechoic chamber in Europe, a highly specialised facility designed for precise acoustic measurements. In this controlled environment, it is possible to analyse noise and vibrations generated by railway components and vehicles, identify their sources and evaluate their performance. This type of research plays a key role in developing quieter, more comfortable and more sustainable transport solutions.
“The initiative offered a valuable learning opportunity, strengthening the link between teaching, research and industry, and allowing students to engage directly with high-level operational environments and infrastructures,” commented Luca Diviani, Head of the Bachelor, and Matteo Montini, lecturer in Railway Engineering.