Live Demonstration of JNCTION’s Timetable Optimisation Tool

Date

5th April 2023

Author

Mia

Reading Time

< 1 minute

 

On Tuesday 4th April, members of the JNCTION team were invited to demonstrate their brand new TPR Analysis Tool to delegates including Network Rail, Innovate-UK and Transport for Wales.

Since the TPR Analysis Tool was granted seed funding by Innovate-UK, the Tool has successfully been trialled at a segment of the North Wales Coastline, between Crewe and Holyhead, as well as being rolled out along a segment of the East Coast Main Line between York and Newcastle.

JNCTION’s Director of Consulting Daniel Bell gave a tour of the new system, presenting the different functionalities of the product, a live walk-through of the tool, as well as conducting a Q&A session.

Congratulations in particular to data scientists Sam Brown, Sofia Nieva and Ivan Fitzpatrick for all their hard work with the development of the Timetable Tool, as well as Lucas Callaghan for his excellent User Design contribution.

What does the TPR Analysis Tool do?

Problem:

  • The industry relies heavily on simulations and anecdotes when planning, resulting in a sub-optimal timetable with reduced resilience and capacity
  • Reviewing the performance of a TPR is manual and time-intensive
  • Timetable issues and associated changes are not always shared between Network Rail and the operators
  • TPRs are currently stored in multiple pdf documents and are difficult to work with

Solution:

  • The TPR Analysis Tool visualises different types of TPR (SRT, dwell time, headway, junction) in a unified way for multiple routes.
  • The tool presents key issues identified with the existing TPRs and sectional running times (SRTs) to users, allowing them to then work towards a potential changes to improve performance or increase capacity
  • Issues and capacity opportunities are automatically identified statistically using large amounts of real-world train movement data