Abstract: In view of the urban rail transit asset characteristics such as diverse types, wide distribution, long cycle and large fund proportion, starting from asset management concepts including ISO55001, LCAM (life cycle asset management), SEC (safety efficiency cost) management, major problems encountered in the practice of urban rail transit carrying out global, full-aspect, whole-process asset management are analyzed emphatically. On the basis of the overall architecture of Shanghai rail transit ‘smart metro’, the asset management system architecture based on ‘smart metro’ is defined. Advantages of this structure in comparison with conventional asset management system are analyzed. The strategy of asset management digitalization, integration, software-defined and platforming construction is proposed based on ‘smart metro’.