Coordination of planning processes for traffic operators on rail networks; Annual Report 1, Swedish national railway administration (Banverket) R&D-project - SPOK

This project is concerned with how to improve the capacity allocation process. In particular the project aims at proposing an enhanced format for train path applications, study the technical limitations for timetabling support tools and in the longer term to implement support systems for the train path allocation process. This report describes the various factors that affect the application process, and report the opinions from several actors in the field. Since the deregulation of the Swedish railway, and with new EU directives, the foundations for the capacity allocation process is changing rapidly. There is a strong need for clear and predictable principles that are fair and operator neutral and implements the prioritisation given to different types of traffic and for improved methodologies and decision support tools in the capacity allocation process. This is crucial to support both the possibility for the traffic operators to state demands and the timetable designers in judging conflicting train paths. A conclusion is that almost all the requirements on the timetable presented in this report can in fact be stated as properties and relations of events in the timetable