State-of-the-Art and User Needs in Capacity Management and Access Charging (Project Report of the PARTNER project)

The project PARTNER aims to develop an Internet based software demonstrator that provides a common platform for international path allocation for European Infrastructur Managers of railway networks. The work of project PARTNER will become the basis for a software tool that flexibly supports the international timetabling process adn uses new service applications to reduce the necessary time of the process by up to two to five days. State-of-the-art of current Access Charging is analysed (chapter 2). Moreover, state-of-the art of Capacity Management is assessed by evaluation of other EU-RDT results and latest literature, which specifically concern Capacity Management methods (Chapter 3). A structured survey of European Infrastructure Managers and Railway Undertakings was completed in order to determine user needs and requirements (Chapter 4). The lessons learned from the first workpackage are intended to convince the prospectives users that the project will meet their interest and to geth the necessary support from them (chapter 5)