Prof. Dr. Ulrich Alois Weidmann
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Alois Weidmann
VP Infrastructure
Additional information
LinkedIn: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Weidmann
Ulrich Weidmann has been Full Professor of Transport Systems at ETH Zurich since June 2004, and from 2013 until the end of 2015 he was Head of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (D-BAUG).
Since January 2016, he has been a member of the Executive Board of ETH Zurich as Vice President for Infrastructure.
After studying Civil Engineering at ETH Zurich, Ulrich Weidmann worked as a doctoral student at the Institute for Transport Planning and Systems (IVT). From 1994 until 2004, he was responsible for the services on the suburban (S-Bahn) and regional networks of Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). As Head of Engineering for the infrastructure division at SBB, he managed railway technology, architecture, diagnostic technology and innovation management.
Ulrich Weidmann’s research has focused on the following areas: the design of passenger transport systems, the integration of rail freight transport systems in logistic chains, and the efficiency and automation of railway networks and track construction.
As Vice President for Infrastructure, he leads the Executive Board division of the same name in the function of a Chief Operating Officer. Core competencies of the division are procurement, renewal and maintenance of needs-based infrastructures, as well as customer-oriented services for teaching, research, transfer, outreach and administration.
Course Catalogue
Spring Semester 2025
| Number | Unit |
|---|---|
| 101-0419-01L | Railway Infrastructures 1 |
| 364-1058-00L | Risk Center Seminar Series |
Emphasis of the Chair
Both society and economy demand mobility that is efficient, safe and environmentally friendly. Especially public transportation systems are expected to play a vital role in this. Consequently, its design and operation are challenging tasks.
Settlement areas are in constant change and oftentimes their development leaves the historically grown patterns. Infrastructure investments however, are long term measures, making optimization of processes, as well as information and control systems crucial for capacity increases. At the same time, technical and operational availability are to be increased along with safety, efficiency and effectiveness of public transportation systems.
Support in dealing with these tasks is provided by the transportation systems group`s research focuses:
Passenger Transportation Systems
Deployment of transportation systems according to their characteristics; Design of market and cost optimal supply systems, especially for agglomerations and cities; Interactions between transportation systems and urbanities; combined mobility; Design and evaluation methods for system wide approaches.
Freight Transportation Systems
Operational and technical alignment of freight rail according to logistics concepts; Production strategies and process optimization at freight railways; Capacity management impact of pricing models; Facility wear and environmental impacts; modal split models in freight transportation; sustainability of logistics chains.
Production Processes
Operational processes in heavily loaded public transportation networks; Control cycles for high precision train control; Operational stability of road based public transportation systems; Methods in safety and availability analysis, RAMS-Methods; Fundamentals of passenger embarking and disembarking and pedestrian movements.
Additional subjects of interest to Professor Weidmann are:
- Transport and public policy, transport regulation
- Organization and financing of public transport, public transport business models
- Infrastructure development, infrastructure organization
- Technical standards, regulations, innovation management