Project Overview

The rail industry faced a national timetable challenge causing significant passenger delays, particularly during peak hours.

The process to create the railway timetables had become cumbersome over time, with many competing processes and procedures. The infrastructure owner approached us for our expertise to revamp timetabling standards that would lead to an enhanced and revamped process for the railway industry. 

Our experts were approached due to existing relationships with the infrastructure owner, in part due to the work of our colleagues on a nationwide information sharing process and IT architecture being developed by the Defect Recording Analysis and Corrective Action System (DRACAS) Steering Group. The infrastructure owner valued this expertise, especially because it was being applied to all control, command, and signalling (CCS) shared systems used on the GB mainline railway.

Our role was to identify target areas for railway timetabling standardisation, based on a detailed analysis of the GB rail business architecture. This then enabled prioritisation and implementation of standards to modernise GB mainline timetabling. We were able to apply our experience in creating and maintaining high quality operational systems to identify and share the most effective solutions.

Project Delivery and Outcome

Initial discussions between us and the infrastructure owner resulted in a comprehensive project plan that detailed how our experts and resources would be provided to identify timetabling standards that needed to be modified and upgraded. 

This needed to be done in a way that supported the wider GB mainline timetabling process. Another requirement of the project was that the project solution avoided any repetition of timetabling confusion and passenger delays during the next set of timetable changes. The infrastructure owner had to get it right first time.

Over a 6-month period, our experts worked with the infrastructure owner to determine what needed to be modernised and evaluated the existing railway timetabling procedures. Their pre-existing expertise meant that they could get straight to work rather than spend precious time becoming acquainted with the necessary background knowledge.

In addition, because our experts were able to use the first-principles engineering that they also use to define rail standards and best practice, they were instrumental in delivering the project outcomes to a tight schedule. 

The project concluded with detailed recommendations supplied by us which were used by the infrastructure owner to prioritise which standards needed to be changed and in what order. 

Why RSSB?

We are GB’s independent rail network research body. Our consultants set industry standards with specialised knowledge from outside the industry, as well as practical experience from within the industry. 

This is especially true with our hands-on experience and whole-system expertise of the digital railway, gained from supporting the roll-out and management of initiatives including the European Train Control System (ETCS), meant we were the only viable partner to help the infrastructure owner deliver their project outcomes. 

Our most technically proficient experts within timetabling and technical policy were seconded to work on the project. This included a lead Control Command and Signalling engineer who is the RSSB lead for the DRACAS Steering Group, as well as the Chair of the Telematic Applications for Freight and Passenger Services TSI NTSN Mirror Group and Data, and the Chair of the Systems and Telematics Standards Committee. Valuable contributions were also provided by our technical policy manager, who had over 25 years’ experience in safety management working for train operators and large infrastructure maintenance contractors.