Working with Jnction threw up some findings we weren’t expecting. Some of the staff apps they highlighted would make a big difference, so we’re looking into it further [NWR Project Interview]
Background:
Scotland’s Railway has set an ambitious target for the entire network for 92.5% of services to arrive at their destination within five minutes of the advertised time.
Whilst punctuality and reliability are affected by major incidents and extreme events, there is also significant time lost due to repeated low-level delays. Cumulatively these can easily lead to services arriving more than 5 minutes late at their destination.
It is well-known that services lose time on route, but after demonstrating how much major terminus turnarounds are affecting punctuality at subsequent stations, the region brought Jnction in to review operations at one of the major terminus stations.
Our Solution:
Using a granular historic record of train movements from JNCTION Archive, Jnction provided evidence to the region of how much departure lateness was impacting the punctuality of their services.
We found that for every additional 60s of additional departure lateness leads to a ~10% drop off in the chances of reaching the destination on time.
Jnction then conducted a detailed review of the station operations at this major terminus station, including data deep-dives, site visits and conducting a series of interviews with key station personnel.
Using our ‘Station Operations Playbook‘, the team of data scientists analysed trends by location within the station, turnarounds and destinations to identify problem hotspots for further investigation.
Benefits:
The successful analysis of the station operations allowed Jnction to identify a number of priority improvement areas with the region which are being actively explored.
These include a number of specific timetable fixes, and specific additional software for staff which would address problems they experience in their day-jobs.
