NURail students at AREMA

Over 60 NURail students attended the 2014 AREMA Conference in Chicago in September.

RailTEC at TRB 2015

On Sunday, January 11, 2015 approximately 50 people attended the University of Illinois RailTEC dinner at the 94th TRB Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

Work Day at Railroad Museum

Nearly 70 civil engineering students and faculty from CEE 408 and 409 classes participated in two work days at the Monticello Railway Museum in Monticello, Illinois in October.

RailTEC Alumni Dinner

Approximately 90 RailTEC faculty, students and alumni enjoyed a meal together while at AREMA 2014 in Chicago.

Little Obie visits UI

RailTEC employees enjoyed a ride around Engineering Quad on 5 August 2014 as part of the GLXS symposium.

Welcome to RailTEC

Upcoming Events

Spring 2015 Hay Seminar Series

The next William W. Hay Seminar Series presentation will be Friday, February 27, 2015. The speaker will be John Popovics, Civil and Environment Engineering associate professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The title of his presentation is “Non-destructive in-place condition assessment technologies for deterioration in railroad ties”. Please join us at 12:20 to listen in. Login information is available on our Hay Seminar page.

RailTEC Short Course Summer 2015

RailTEC invites you this summer to attend three short courses on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. These one week courses are being held on the following subjects: Railway Operations; Railway Engineering; High-Speed Rail Engineering. Click here for more information.

RREC - Call for Abstracts Open!

16th RREC logo

Abstracts are being submitted through March 1, 2015 for the 17th Railroad Environmental Conference. Click here for more details.

RREC will be held on October 27 – 28, 2015 on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus. Mark your calendars now!

Engineering Open House – 2015

EOH 2015

Engineering Open House (EOH) is an annual student-led event featuring two days of exhibits and competitions that showcase the engineering students at the University of Illinois. The event is open to the public at no cost. Families, students, and community members are invited on March 13 – March 14 for the 95th EOH.

In the News

Major Research Funding Award

February 2015: The US DOT Federal Transit Administration recently announced that RailTEC has been awarded a major, two-year research project investigating improvements in rail transit infrastructure quality, reliability and safety. RailTEC faculty and students will quantify the loading demands on current systems, develop finite element models, and design prototype concrete crossties and fastening systems for light rail, heavy rail, and commuter rail infrastructure. This project includes the overall objective of keeping public transportation safe and in a state of good repair, especially during natural disasters and other externally caused extreme events. Click here for a complete listing of the media coverage of this newly awarded FTA project.

Illinois Receives AREMA Scholarships

February 20, 2015: This morning the AREMA Educational Foundation announced its 2015 Scholarship Winners and eleven Illinois students are recipients. The winners are: Ivan Atanassov, Samantha Chadwick, Giovanni DiDomenico, Matthew Greve, Phanuwat Kaewpanya, Alexander Lovett, Daniel Rivi, Thomas Roadcap, Scott Schmidt, Paul Shih, and Kaijun Zhu. For a complete list of names and their awarded scholarships, click here. Congratulations to all!

RailTEC Faculty Quoted

February 2015: Two RailTEC faculty were interviewed in the aftermath of the February 3 Metro-North collision with an SUV. Click here to read the article.

NURail Center Student of the Year
James O’Shea

January 2015: Congratulations to James O’Shea, the NURail Center Student of the Year. James is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at UIC in Mechanical Engineering. His research activities focus on railroad vehicle stability and the analysis of vehicle derailment criteria. As the recipient of this award James will receive an honorarium from NURail in recognition of his outstanding technical research, record of publications and presentation, academic performance, and professional leadership.

Professional and Educational Milestones

December 2014: Members of RailTEC's railroad infrastructure research team recently achieved significant professional and educational milestones. Riley Edwards and Marcus Dersch both passed their Professional Engineering exam. Meanwhile, the newest addition to RailTEC staff, Research Engineer Yu Qian, deposited his Ph.D. dissertation thus completing his degree. Welcome to Yu and Congratulations to all!

Click here to read more news

About Us

  • Who we are:University Of Illinois Rail Transportation and Engineering Center

  • For over a century the University of Illinois has been a leader in railway engineering research and education. Beginning with Talbot's fundamental work on railroad track design, and Schmidt & Tuthill's work on train energy and power requirements, through Hay's textbook on railroad engineering, The U of I has a distinguished record of accomplishment and remains highly respected by today's railroad engineering community.

  • What we do:
    Education

    Inspire and sustain students and faculty interest in rail engineering and transport. Teach courses and offer a curriculum in rail engineering and transportation. Place Graduates in rewarding positions in rail engineering, transportation planning, and operations. Understand the critical educational issues in rail transportation, and develop practical, effective solutions.


    Research

    Understand the critical research issues in rail transportation, and develop practical, effective solutions. Conduct practical and theoretical research in critically important current topics in rail engineering and transportation. Communicate the results of this research to the rail transportation community.


    Service

    Provide knowledge and expertise to university, industry, government, and public on rail transportation and engineering topics.