The wave of AI (artificial intelligence) is surging across industries in this era, with all sectors seeking opportunities for transformation and improvement in management efficiency. The urban rail transit network in China ranks first globally in terms of operating mileage, with vast scale and numerous application scenarios, providing a natural foundation and advantage for the application and promotion of AI technologies. In the context of increasing requirements for operational safety, equipment reliability, and maintenance cost efficiency, the urban rail transit industry is actively exploring and leveraging AI to enhance the capabilities and standards of equipment maintenance, thereby effectively reducing operation and maintenance costs.At present, AI and other emerging information technologies are further driving the transformation from digitalization to intelligence, bringing major opportunities for technological iteration and industrial transformation in the urban rail transit sector. AI has become a core engine for high-quality and sustainable development. The deep integration of ′AI+Urban Rail′ across all scenarios marks the official entry into the 2.0 era of AI-empowered ′Smart Urban Rail.′Station electromechanical systems include numerous disciplines such as platform screen doors, escalators, and automatic fare collection, which are directly related to passenger travel safety and service experience, receiving increasing attention. However, station electromechanical maintenance commonly faces the ′six-many and one-high′ phenomenon (referring to many sporadic disciplines, many pieces of equipment, many failures, many outsourced contractors, many maintenance staff, many passenger complaints, and high overall costs). This has long been a common challenge and difficulty across the industry.Shanghai Electric has independently developed the ′Station Electromechanical Multi-disciplinary Integrated & Intelligent Maintenance (iPHMart-S) System and Comprehensive Solution,′ characterized by autonomy, intelligence, eco-friendliness, compact and refined design, lightweight structure, and rapid deployment. Compared with traditional single-specialty maintenance mode, this solution significantly improves equipment management levels while reducing overall costs by more than 30%.1) One digital foundation. This includes digital equipment ledgers and structured maintenance procedures, and digitized ledgers. According to the importance of professional equipment systems, they are classified into three levels—A, B, and C. Different ledger granularity standards and maintenance strategies are formulated for each level, covering condition-based maintenance, planned maintenance, and corrective maintenance. For various procedures, disciplines are structured and digitized according to maintenance frequencies, forming a one-to-one mapping relationship with the digital equipment ledger.2) Two functional modules. These include the planning management module and the fault management module. The planning management module refers to inspection and maintenance tasks carried out according to plan, executed in the form of planned work orders by inspection and maintenance teams, and confirmed by station operation departments to form a closed-loop process. The fault management module refers to fault repair requests originating from different sources, executed in the form of fault work orders by emergency repair teams, thereby forming a closed loop for fault scenarios.3) One set of equipment records. Based on the execution of planned and fault work orders, a closed-loop process of full-cycle management is achieved, forming a complete electronic equipment record. With the passage of time and accumulation of data, this not only effectively avoids common problems such as scattered storage, loss, and difficulty in tracing paper-based work orders, but also establishes a true foundation of equipment operation and maintenance data assets, providing strong data support for a wide range of applications.4) Standardized organizational structure. A flat organizational structure (1+3) and a maintenance-inspection-separated model are adopted, consisting of one center (MCC—digital operation and maintenance coordination center) plus three teams (technical support & data analysis team, emergency repair team, and inspection & maintenance team). Personnel are allocated in a standardized manner: the inspection & maintenance team is configured based on procedure man-hours, the emergency repair team is configured according to the number of stations, the technical support team is configured by specialty, and MCC is configured by duty shifts. This enables standardized personnel allocation, humanized man-hour management, transparent cost control, and efficient maintenance operations.5) One AI analysis system. Supported by the iPHMart-S system, while automatically generating equipment fault records, large volumes of standardized data on equipment status, failures, and personnel man-hours are produced daily, providing the foundation for real-time AI analysis. Through statistical work and professional analysis conducted by the technical support team, it becomes easy to identify: which stations, which systems, which time periods, which spare parts, and which personnel are associated with what specific situations, and what resource support is required. This enables precise personnel allocation and training, refined equipment management and enhancement, transparent cost control and reduction, as well as standardized model promotion and application.By the end of 2024, China′s urban rail transit operating mileage exceeded 12 000 km, with more than 6 650 stations. Based on an average annual maintenance cost of RMB 1 million per station, the annual market size reaches RMB 6.65 billion. With an estimated 30% reduction in comprehensive costs, annual savings could amount to RMB 2 billion.One rise, one fall: a ′small system′ addresses major industry challenges. AI empowerment is propelling the high-quality development of urban rail transit, transitioning from conceptual exploration to practical implementation. Leveraging its industrial foundation in urban rail transit equipment, along with its strengths in digitalization and intelligence, Shanghai Electric will provide customers with industry-leading, high-efficiency, low-cost ′AI+Urban Rail′ integrated solutions.

Translated by ZHANG Liman