Efficient Planning: Your Journey Starts Here

Signature Rail enables train planners to quickly and easily produce fully optimised timetables taking into consideration all required resources and constraints.

Agile, intuitive tools and powerful algorithms empower effective decisions through complex ‘what if’ scenario planning, enabling the construction of timetables, allocation of crews and vehicles, and detection and resolution of conflicts before trains are put into action.

Essential Elements of Effective Planning

Signature Rail optimises planning processes in four ways:

Simple

Automation of vehicle and crew assignments reduces operational costs, facilitating the production of conflict-free timetables and meeting union rules.

Agile

Intuitive tools and access to all relevant information enables planners to react quickly and easily to any unplanned variations.

Empowering

Powerful algorithms can process vast quantities of data, enabling planners to strategically explore available options to deliver maximum efficiency.

Transparent

Seamless integration across trains, vehicles and crew ensures that managers have complete visibility regarding all key performance indicators

Request a Demo and see Rail Planning in Action!

Planning Modules

TrainPlan

Creates train schedules and provides planners with tools to manage timetabling across all time horizons (long-term, short-term, very short-term planning), including changes required for possessions and unexpected events.

Fully supports the rail operator's business process and automatically validates the schedule for conflicts.

Provides an environment for ‘what if’ scenarios and has extensive calendaring functionality.

Powerful graphic and tabular displays with complete display of service schedule information simplify modification or addition of services (which can be done in bulk)

Demonstrating TrainPlan: Creating Variant Vehicle Diagrams

Adrian Gransbury illustrates how easy it is to manage a special event by creating a variant train diagram.

Demonstrating TrainPlan: Managing Over-Running Engineering Works

Adrian Gransbury illustrates how easy it is to manage over-running engineering works.

Demonstrating TrainPlan: Assign Uncovered Trains

Adrian Gransbury illustrates how easy it is to assign ‘uncovered trains’ to ensure all train services are covered

Demonstrating TrainPlan: Plan and Track Fuelling Activity and Distances

Adrian Gransbury, demonstrates how easy it is to plan fuelling activity and track fuelling distances (taking into account BI-mode fleets).

ResourcePlan

Uses the schedule already prepared through Timetable Planning to create Vehicle Diagrams (Blocks and Runs) and Crew Diagrams (anonymous Rosters).

Automatically validates against planning regulations, traction types and working rule directives.

Fully supports splitting and joining of trains to provide the given services.

Provides tracking of fuel, maintenance distances and crew hours and costs.

Optimiser

Automates and optimises the creation of vehicle diagrams and crew work schedules.

Considers all data inputs, constraints and parameters.

Optimiser is delivered in partnership with QAMPO, a Decision Science specialist with a proven track record in helping organisations to simplify complex operations through the utilisation of Mathematical Modelling, Optimisation and Machine Learning principles.

What our customers say

I’ve worked with TrainPlan and the fine folks in York for over 20 years. I’m not aware of any agency on this continent that has conquered an undertaking of this magnitude – schedules, crewing, equipment cycles, terminal and yard planning, passenger connections, downstream systems, etc. The protect team is to be commended – it’s taken everyone’s efforts. Work continues, of course, but it’s my hope that Metro North’s system will stand as the model for North American passenger railroads.

TrainPlan allows us to manage our data in an efficient manner allowing for safe and high performing service changes to be implemented as quickly as possible. This has been a particularly important capability over the past ten months given the volume of timetable changes we’ve had to make and continue to have to make.

We have had an excellent relationship for many, many years. The team are service minded to our needs. It is more like colleagues than a vendor/customer relationship: they have their mind on getting the railway running. They understand rail and offer good advice on how to proceed. It’s been very, very good.