optimising railways SMA Consulting and software for railways

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1 optimising railways SMA Consulting and software for railways

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3 The railway business is booming Rail travel is more popular than ever. SMA has been part of this success story for 25 years. Commerce is the exchange of goods and services. This exchange takes place over existing transportation and communications networks. In order for trade to flourish, it requires a functioning infrastructure and so a region that wants to promote its economy will first optimise its transport systems. In the competition among modes of transportation, the railway lost standing during the second half of the twentieth century, because cars and planes were less expensive and more convenient. Environmental concerns are among the factors that have helped the railways recover some of their former success. At the same time, rail travel has become more efficient and more comfortable. Little by little it has regained market share, so that once again we can say that business is booming on the railways. The railway system is made up of many different technical, organisational and institutional components. There are numerous players involved, each of which benefits from different incentives and which have a mutual effect on one another. The management and optimisation of this system has been SMA s core competency for over 25 years. 3

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5 From network development to operations management The railway system consists of numerous components and players. SMA knows the entire planning and production process from the bottom up. Transportation companies, infrastructure operators and regulatory authorities are our partners. Their common goal is the optimisation of transportation capacity, taking economic factors into account. The common denominator at the centre of all of this is the timetable. It is the result of countless decisions made over many decades. SMA has a full understanding of the entire process chain, with a view to the regional, national and international stakeholders. We also cover the specific national, sociological, cultural and political situation. By bringing facts and experience into the discussion, we become a catalyst and a moderator in the dialogue among institutional parties. Efficient rail systems can only be developed with an in-depth understanding of the planning and production processes. The individual tasks range from network development to operations management and extend over a broad time horizon. Activities Train operators Infrastructure managers Public authorities Minutes Hours Days Months Years Decades Time before operations Operations management Customer information Daily timetables Dispatching and disruption management Dispute arbitration (regulator) Resource planning (staff and rolling stock) Path request and allocation, yearly timetable Capacity and works planning Franchising and tenders Rolling-stock strategy Infrastructure planning Network development and service planning 5

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7 Expanding flexibility in planning Our experience shows that the infrastructure must not determine the timetable, but that both should be developed jointly. At SMA we like to overturn conven - tional views. Because each individual element on the tracks, in the stations, the rolling stock or the signalling system can influence the final services offered, in our opinion the timetable and the infrastructure should be developed simultaneously. The more time remaining before the introduction of the new timetable, the greater the scope for action: Decades in advance, the design of the route of the line itself can still be considered, towards the end there is only the operational control to optimise. Planning ahead also makes the high cost of infrastructure improvements transparent and allows practical discussions with the public. At the beginning of the planning process there is always the expected demand and thus the definition of the intended service offering. From there, factors such as the journey times, frequencies and possible connections can be derived. It would be very expensive to develop the numerous operating concepts years in advance with microscopic data granularity. SMA therefore uses methods and tools which permit the analysis of future operation models years before the commissioning of railway systems, thus expanding the planning flexibility in the search for the optimal solution. Over the course of the process, the models are refined to a precision level that is appropriate to the stage. 7

8 Years since company founding Number of countries in which projects have been completed Engineers and consultants in the company Railway operations and operators served Cumulative years of professional experience Total number of projects completed

9 SMA UND PARTNER AG All aspects of railway optimisation from a single source SMA combines consulting skills with fully developed software solutions. Our range of services covers our customers planning needs. SMA was founded in 1987 as a consulting and software company for the planning and optimisation of railway systems. Today our 70 employees do business in 30 countries. Our competence is based on the objectivity that comes with complete independence from suppliers, and on consulting combined with fully developed software solutions. Central to this is Viriato: the unique timetable system developed by SMA. SMA s greatest capital is its skilled and highly-motivated employees, nearly all of them holding university degrees in engineering or business administration. They have an average age of 36 and 10 years professional experience. The size of the company ensures that customers have consistent personal interaction with us, particularly since we enjoy extremely low employee turnover. SMA s range of services is unsurpassed in its breadth and depth. It consists of railway planning, process consulting and operations optimisation as well as IT services and the Viriato software package. The individual components of Viriato complement one another and in combination support all aspects of railway optimisation. With our five business areas we cover the entire spectrum of our customers requirements. Solutions Minutes Train operators Infrastructure managers Public authorities Hours Days Months Years Decades Business areas Railway system planning Operations optimisation Viriato and ZLR IT services Process consulting Time before operations 9

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11 RAILWAY SYSTEM PLANNING New concepts for rail service Many railway systems appear to have reached their capacity limits. But creative approaches still enable further improvements. For more than a hundred years, railway timetable planning was a strictly linear, sequential process. In recent decades, this practice has made way for a more modern, product-oriented method. Central to this is the idea that all technical components contribute to the development of the railway service product and thus to the actual services offered. Our customers are frequently confronted with the difficult task of creating additional capacity in already congested networks. We develop suitable models for this, which provide exact specifications for the network development and robust capacity planning. The earlier the correct information is available, the greater the scope for action during the conceptual phase, which in turn has a positive effect on the total cost of the project. With creative solutions, SMA has been able to contribute to over two thousand public transport quality improvement projects. 11

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13 OPERATIONS OPTIMISATION Optimal use of existing resources Numerous interrelated factors shape rail transport. The right models portray the complex interactions. Operational management is a core business of the railway, whether a train operator or infrastructure manager. Because the utilisation level and complexity of the infrastructure are constantly increasing, the operational demands are also increasing. The optimisation of the process within a given framework is thus one of our main functions. The measurable variables for quality include punctuality and especially in saturated systems such as the central portion of suburban lines the number of trains running at peak hours. System analyses show that there are some 40 interrelated components in rail operations. These can be divided into the following subsystems: passengers, information, rolling stock, infrastructure configuration, timetable, capacity and traffic management. The resulting overall complex system can be described algorithmically and converted into simulation models, so that the ramifications of changes in each component can be investigated and quantified. Operational quality, costs and benefits are evaluated based on detailed factors. 13

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15 VIRIATO The versatile timetable system At the centre of our software solutions is the Viriato timetabling system. Thanks to new technology and architecture it is more powerful than ever. The primary function of Viriato is conceptual service and operations planning. Due to its unique functions, the software is an integral component of timetable planning for over 90 companies in 15 countries. Its most important components are the graphic timetable, netgraph, running time calculation, platform occupancy, conflict detection, trip time analysis and vehicle rostering. Viriato allows the user to quickly develop numerous different scenarios and make comparisons between them. With the new additional module Viriato Enterprise, different dated infrastructure variants can be kept in one database. The module also contains a train model which optimally supports design, from fully coordinated train families to day-specific individual trainpaths. The data is continuously refined on the way from conceptual planning to the production-ready timetable. After a complete architecture and technology redesign, the new Viriato.NET is available as of autumn Based on the.net Framework, Viriato is the most modern railway timetabling system available on the market. 15

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17 RUNNING TIME CALCULATOR Calculating the future With its running time calculator, SMA offers a second freestanding software solution for long-, medium- and short-term planning as well as dispatching. At the heart of operational planning is the calculation of the technical running times, which determine the feasibility of individual planned routes before the planners addition of running time reserves. The exact determination of these times is of critical importance in the overall process of schedule configuration. For this purpose, SMA developed the ZLR running time calculator. SMA s running time calculator is loosely coupled to the infrastructure data of the system requesting a running time. Hence, it is optimally suited for use throughout the entire planning process up to and including dispatching. In dispatching, tens of thousands of requests can be processed daily. Through hardware clustering and the use of optimised network protocols, ZLR s potential performance capacity is practically unlimited. ZLR supports macroscopic, mesoscopic and microscopic infrastructure models. Its consistent implementation as an open web service makes it usable throughout the organisation. Run-time consistency can thus be ensured throughout the entire process. ZLR was calibrated in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) for use in Switzerland. Today the run times calculated by ZLR in long-, mediumand short-term planning as well as in train dispatching agree precisely with the actually travelled run times. 17

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19 IT SERVICES At the interface between railway and IT Our double expertise in the areas of planning and IT allows us to combine organisational business processes with the most efficient technical processes. The integrated company strategy of SMA is reflected in the expertise of its IT service division. Proven experts with years of experience both in the railway and the IT industry have always been a part of SMA. These project managers, business analysts and IT consultants move in international circles and thus know the best practices for the global railway landscape. Our customers can be sure that they receive the solutions that best support their processes. SMA s IT services include the integration of our products in our customers business processes. We develop customer-specific adaptations into our core software, and implement interfaces between the Viriato platform and peripheral systems such as rostering, path ordering systems or companywide infrastructure databases. The business analysts at SMA also advise our customers in the implementation of their own systems, such as the calculation of more energy-efficient train running profiles. 19

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21 PROCESS CONSULTING Support in implementation Systematic planning and the right IT solutions make up the framework for an efficient railway system. SMA is also there for project implementation. Our work does not stop with support in conceptual planning and software configuration. More and more we accompany our customers during the implementation of their projects. Our systematic understanding of the entire railway world is of great value in the implementation of complex projects. Process consulting brings together the expertise of our employees in planning and IT profitably. They all possess a fundamental understanding of timetable production and operation. Railway systems are our core competency and our passion. 21

22 Selected references AAR bus+bahn, Aarau (CH) AKN Eisenbahn AG, Kaltenkirchen (DE) Appenzeller Bahnen, Herisau (CH) Auto AG Schwyz, Schwyz (CH) Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology, Munich (DE) Bayerische Eisenbahngesellschaft mbh, Munich (DE) BLS Netz AG, Bern (CH) Bombardier Transportation, Berlin, Zurich (DE, CH) California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), California (USA) Canton of Aargau, Aarau (CH) Canton of Bern, Bern (CH) Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg (CH) Canton of Geneva, Geneva (CH) Canton of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel (CH) Canton of Nidwalden, Stans (CH) Canton of Schaffhausen, Schaffhausen (CH) Canton of Ticino, Bellinzona (CH) Canton of Vaud, Lausanne (CH) Citec Ingénieurs Conseils SA, Geneva (CH) CJ Chemins de fer du Jura, Tavannes (CH) Commission Nationale du Débat Public, Paris (FR) CP Comboios de Portugal, Lisbon (PT) DB Fernverkehr AG, Frankfurt a. M. (DE) DB Netz AG, Frankfurt a. M. (DE) DB Regio AG, Frankfurt a. M. (DE) Deutsche Bahn AG, Berlin (DE) EAE Eisenbahninfrastrukturgesellschaft Aurich-Emden mbh, Aurich (DE) Egis Rail, Guyancourt (FR) ETC Transport Consultants GmbH, Berlin (DE) Federal Railroad Administration, Washington (USA) Ferbritas SA, Lisbon (PT) Flughafen München GmbH, Munich (DE) FNM Ferrovienord SpA, Milan (IT) FOT Swiss Federal Office of Transport, Bern (CH) FTA Finnish Transport Agency, Helsinki (FI) Gemeente Eindhoven Openbare ruimte, Verkeer & Milieu, Eindhoven (NL) Ifsttar, Villeneuve d Ascq (FR) Infrabel, Brussels (BE) Ingérop Conseil et ingénierie, Courbevoie (FR) Jungfraubahnen AG, Interlaken (CH) Keolis, Paris (FR) Kompetenzcenter ITF NRW, Bielefeld (DE) Land Salzburg, Salzburg (AT) Landratsamt Alb-Donau-Kreis, Ulm (DE) Limmattalbahn AG, Zurich (CH) LVS Landesweite Verkehrsservicegesellschaft Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel (DE) Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, Brig (CH) Metron Verkehrsplanung AG, Brugg (CH) Metro S.A., Santiago de Chile (CL) Ministerium des Innern für Sport und Infrastruktur Rheinland-Pfalz, Mainz (DE) MOB Golden Pass Services, Montreux (CH) Nahverkehr Rheinland GmbH, Cologne (DE) Net Engineering, Monselice (IT) NSB AS, Oslo (NO) NVBW Nahverkehrsgesellschaft Baden- Württemberg mbh, Stuttgart (DE) NVV Nordhessischer Verkehrsverbund, Kassel (DE) NWL Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe, Bielefeld (DE) Plateway Pty Ltd, Clyde (AU) PostBus Switzerland Ltd, Bern (CH) PTN Passenger Transport Networks, York (UK) Railteam BV, Amsterdam (NL) RATP, Paris (FR) RBS Regionalverkehr Bern-Solothurn, Worblaufen (CH) REFER Rede Ferroviária Nacional, Lisbon (PT) Région Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse (FR) Région Rhône-Alpes, Lyon (FR) RegionAlps SA, Martigny (CH) Regionalverband Donau-Iller, Ulm (DE) RFF Réseau Ferré de France, Paris (FR) RhB Rhaetian Railway, Chur (CH) RMV Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund GmbH, Hofheim a. Ts. (DE) Roma Servizi per la Mobilità, Rome (IT) SBB GmbH, Konstanz (DE) SBB Swiss Federal Railways, Bern (CH) Setec Ferroviaire, Paris (FR) SNCB/NMBS Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Belges, Brussels (BE) SNCF Conseil, Paris (FR) SNCF Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français, Paris (FR) Stadler Rail AG, Bussnang (CH) Stadt Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe (DE) Stadt Konstanz, Konstanz (DE) Stadt Winterthur, Winterthur (CH) Stadtverwaltung Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden (DE) Stadtwerke München GmbH, Munich (DE) Stadtwerke Ulm, Ulm (DE) Systra, Paris (FR) SZU Sihltal Zürich Uetliberg Bahn, Zurich (CH) Tarifverbund Zug, Zug (CH) The Initiative Main Line for Europe, Karlsruhe (DE) TMR Transports de Martigny et Régions SA, Martigny (CH) Trainose S.A., Athens (GR) TRAVYS SA, Yverdon-les-Bains (CH) Trenitalia SpA, Rome (IT) TRN Transports publics neuchâtelois SA, La Chaux-de-Fonds (CH) VBB Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin (DE) VGN Verkehrsverbund Grossraum Nürnberg, Nuremberg (DE) VR Group Ltd, Helsinki (FI) VRN Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar GmbH, Mannheim (DE) VRR Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr AöR, Gelsenkirchen (DE) ZVB Zugerland Verkehrsbetriebe AG, Zug (CH) ZVV Zürcher Verkehrsverbund, Zurich (CH) 22

23 Editorial services SMA und Partner AG, Zurich science communications GmbH, Zurich Visual concept Eggmann-Design, CH-Wernetshausen Printing Druckerei Feldegg AG, CH-Schwerzenbach Photo credits Cover Large photo: Roman Dietiker Small photos: Reiner Hausleitner DB AG Wolfgang Klee SBB CFF FFS DB AG Jürgen Brefort Kecko flickr Eggmann-Design Page 2 Mario Voigt Page 4 Melisa Vogel Page 6 SMA Ulrich Leister Page 8 Jens Edinger Pages 10/11 Large photo: Reiner Hausleitner Small photos: Frank Baumann panthermedia Michael von Aulock Digitalstock Pages 12/13 Large photo: Sven Klügl Small photos: SBB CFF FFS panthermedia Pages 14/15 Large photo: Marcin Glinski Small photos: istockphoto DB AG Max Lautenschläger istockphoto Melisa Vogel Pages 16/17 Large photo: Michael von Aulock Small photos: panthermedia istockphoto SBB CFF FFS Pages 18/19 Large photo: Eckehard Wagner Small photos: istockphoto Eggmann-Design istockphoto DB AG Andreas Muhs Pages 20/21 Large photo: SMA Michael Frei Small photos: SBB CFF FFS DB AG Axel Hartmann Eggmann-Design Genady Belenky SMA und Partner AG September 2012

24 SMA und Partner AG Gubelstrasse 28 CH-8050 Zurich Phone Fax Office in Lausanne