The Fall Release 2024.2 brings numerous innovations that are not immediately visible but have a significant impact on user experience. While the Spring Release 2024.1 focused on functional changes, this time it’s all about speed and usability. Numerous new selection (e.g., multi-selection during status changes in the schedule across multiple sections), configuration, and query options reduce repetitive tasks and accelerate planning work. Overall, we have been able to further optimize the system’s performance in many areas. For instance, response times for master data configurations and updating the schedule board after real-time train imports have been significantly shortened.

However, R2024.2 is not limited to improving user experience and performance. This release also includes functional enhancements that directly optimize planning processes. With common language, it is now possible to connect RailOpt to Open Journey Planner systems. The interface allows direct querying and planning of public transport connections from the schedule board. Planners can, for example, schedule duty trips within seconds. If a train driver needs to travel to their assignment location, the dispatcher can find and schedule the optimal travel route for the driver with just a few clicks. In this example, connection data is retrieved via a link to the SBB app:

In addition to performance and functionality, software security is crucial, especially for railway companies that are part of critical infrastructure and subject to special security requirements. Since the 2024.1 release, users of RailOpt WEBapplications can already log in via OpenID Connect (OIDC). With the 2024.2 release, this option is now also available for the RailOpt client. Thus, the proven OIDC identity authentication protocol can also be used to control client access while better protecting user identities. A final change in the Fall Release worth mentioning is the migration to Jakarta EE. With this step, we have laid a solid foundation for future developments. This allows us to benefit from continuous advancements by an active developer community in the Java ecosystem. Although this innovation is not immediately apparent, it will manifest in the future by enabling us to continue developing and presenting robust and scalable software solutions.

We thank our team for their dedicated work and the active user community for their constructive feedback, which directly flows into the development process. After the release is before the release, and we are already looking forward to introducing more innovative features and developments with R2025.1 soon!

We are excited to introduce the new semi-annual release 2024.1. This update demonstrates our ongoing commitment to further develop RailOpt and provide innovative and proactive solutions. Our goal is to give our users a competitive edge in the railway industry.

This is achieved primarily by consistently supporting the increasingly complex work of planners and dispatchers with automation through RailOpt. Potential human errors are continuously reduced, and work potential is freed up.

Following the major steps taken with the 2023.2 release, particularly with the introduction of automatic personnel allocation and the enhanced UI of the planning module, this path will be consistently pursued with R2024.1. At this point, we would like to present two highlights from the current release.

Track Layout: The clarity in the planning modules has been further improved through visual support.

• With the new feature, you can easily add graphical representations of track layouts and individual storage areas to operational points.
• By accessing the master data in RailOpt, an always up-to-date, visualized layout of the operational points is created.
• The visualization of track lengths, current storage, etc., makes planning work easier for dispatchers and supports them in their decisions.
• You can quickly and easily navigate between individual storage areas via web links.
• Your on-site personnel also receive an up-to-date layout of the surroundings through access via RailOpt WEB, allowing them to move more safely and cautiously.

Qualification Management Enhancements: When planning operations, not only legal requirements must be considered. Railway companies often have specific requirements for execution. Therefore, it is now possible to verify qualifications based on the responsible railway company.

• Specific qualifications of other railway companies can be created in RailOpt.
• For example, if a railway company requires special local knowledge for a stop, this can be stored there.
• If this knowledge is not considered when planning an operation, a conflict message appears with reference to the regulation of the responsible railway company.
• The new qualification management significantly simplifies data management and maintenance.
• You always have an overview of whether it is your own requirements or those of other railway companies.

Our recent progress is thanks to the dedicated work of our team and the active participation of our user community, who continuously support us with valuable feedback. Preparations for the fall release 2024.2 are already in full swing. We look forward to presenting you with more innovative features and improvements soon. Thank you to our users for their trust and continued involvement in the development of our platform.

On June 12 and 13, the annual RailOpt User Group Meeting took place once again. This time, it was held at a historic site in Olten, near the railway kilometer 0 of Switzerland. Since the participants of the meeting, both from the railway companies and Qnamic, are all railway enthusiasts, a visit with a guided tour at SBB Historic was a perfect fit. Many unique exhibits and some historical anecdotes delighted the participants.

But of course, it wasn’t just about reminiscing the past. The first day of the meeting began with the presentation of the Release Highlights 2024.1, which will also be presented here shortly. The focus was particularly on the innovations in qualification management, which make the administration and monitoring of personnel qualifications significantly more efficient and cost-effective.

Following this, Urs Oberholzer (SOB) presented future developments in European railway traffic. The technical requirements and impacts on planning processes in the course of the TMS introduction were then vividly discussed. In this context, Qnamic also presented the new possibilities of the DSS regarding construction site planning and automatic personnel assignment (see also Fall release 2023.2 • QNAMIC)

On the second day, the focus was particularly on stabling planning in dispatching (Excelling at digitalization: CFL goes live with digital depot planning • QNAMIC). The new track diagram as well as the solutions for automatic coupling and personnel changes were also presented. To conclude the event, Silvan Zeiter provided an exciting insight into the use of RailOpt DIS at the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn.

With the amount of topics to be discussed, the exciting discussions, and the engaging input from the guest speakers, the two days of the meeting flew by. We certainly could have filled another two days. But as the saying goes, you should stop when it’s at its best, and we are already looking forward to the User Group Meeting 2025!

Last fall, we reported that CFL, in collaboration with Qnamic, was working on a project to introduce the new shunting yard planning feature. On February 5th, the go-live took place as scheduled, and the control center staff were able to adopt the long-awaited tool into productive operation.

The introduction of the shunting yard management system marks another important step for CFL towards the complete digitalization of their operating systems. Several departments benefit from the introduction. For the planning teams, numerous Excel spreadsheets are eliminated thanks to the fully integrated solution; this makes workflows more transparent and comprehensible. The integration of the shunting yard planning board into RailOpt’s dispatching significantly eases the dispatchers’ workload. By managing the use of shunting tracks (shunting, switching operations, preparations, etc.), it also facilitates the Trains et Materiel department’s ability to prepare workshop tasks more efficiently. In all these areas, stakeholders can now focus more on their core tasks.

The successful launch of the new Parking module was an important milestone for CFL in their endeavor to make processes more efficient and to relieve their staff in some activities, providing them with additional time for other tasks. However, with this step, CFL has not reached the end of their journey, and the next milestones are already in planning: In the future, dispatchers, for example, will be supported in their work by a digital track diagram that visualizes the current situation on the tracks in real-time. CFL is committed to digitalization, and we support them with equal determination!

We’re excited to introduce the next phase of our innovation journey and present the mid-year release update!

In a constantly changing digital landscape, it’s crucial for businesses to stay agile and keep up with the latest technological developments. Our update is designed to help you not just outpace the competition, but also maximize opportunities for your business.

• General Planning: The clarity of planning for vehicle and personnel services has been further developed to better support planners in their work:
  • If a vehicle is scheduled while the personnel capacity is still in a file or an invalid deleted resource, this will be indicated in the traction area by a gray bar above the vehicle capacity.
  • The new display is easily accessible in the schedule options and as a button in the toolbar.
  • In vehicle planning, it is now immediately apparent whether a vehicle is in operation or not. A new feature within the scheduling board allows “gaps”, when a vehicle is in operation (for example, waiting times at a station), to be marked with gray bars, making them visible.
• DSS: The DSS feature has seen continual enhancements this year. The automatic staff scheduling stands out as a major highlight.

• • With this new feature, services can be automatically by AI assigned to your rotation plans, streamlining your processes.
  • Efficiency improvement: The assignment of services is automated, considering all restrictions like qualifications and rest periods, which minimizes human effort.
  • Error prevention: By automating the process, human errors are completely eliminated.
  • Time savings: Manual scheduling is error-prone and takes time. Our new feature generates your workforce schedule in seconds, greatly simplifying the process for planners. They can then concentrate on more critical tasks.
  • Optimized resource utilization: The automatic personnel planning helps to optimize resources by ensuring that employees with the appropriate skills and qualifications take on the respective service.
• The achieved progress is the result of a dedicated team effort and a vibrant user community that continuously supports us with their constructive and valuable feedback on our developments. The planning and implementation of the Spring release 2024.1 are already in full swing. We look forward to offering our users more innovative features and advancements. One focus will be on personnel qualification management.
• We thank our users for their trust and for continuing to actively contribute to the development of our platform.

The Société nationale des chemins de fer Luxembourgois (CFL) serves the very challenging, star-shaped railway hub in Luxemburg. International lines from and to Belgium, Germany and France converge here.

Rising passenger numbers and the recent service adjustment coming with them, require a massive expansion of infrastructure. In addition to the construction and commissioning of new railway stations in the recent past, the construction of a new railway line, the conversion and expansion of existing stations and the building of new shunting areas are part of the current and future modernization projects, which CFL conducts for the Luxembourgian state.

To meet the future requirements, CFL continue to invest in their rolling stock and personnel. But because of the rising volume (over 1.000 trains per day), the complexity also increases at the organizational level, especially regarding the planning & dispatching of parking & shunting.

With the new professional requirements in mind, the experts at CFL and Qnamic went to work to extend the proven planning & dispatching system RailOpt with a depot planning module in agile fashion.

“Qnamic -as in the years before- proved to be a reliable & competent partner in this project. CFL puts its trust in RailOpt for the long term.”

The Qnamic team is extremely pleased with this successful cooperation and is looking forward to the implementation of the upcoming projects!

As announced in the news for Release 2022.2, it was a particular concern for us to support our users in the usage of the graphic time table even better. Many of our users utilize the graphic time table actively in their daily work. Thus it is now directly accessible via the planning board with a few mouse clicks. The graphics are clearly designed, additional train information is available via single mouse click and there are plenty of marking options, which structure the the work with the planning board even further.

Because we want our users to remain flexible at all times, we gave them extensive configuration options. This way they can customize the displayed information to their needs and the current situation at any time. Overall this release focused on the further improvement of user-friendliness to support and simplify our users work in the best possible way. These improvements show in a series of small changes, which at large optimize the usability clearly and relieve the user. This is done for example by automatization of work steps like the automated creation of pre- & post- Run activities, which are needed for the new automated adjustment of the duration oft the change of personnel. The user-friendliness of the time table management has also been improved, so that routes, vehicles and driving regimes can be created and administered even more intuitively now. We added new display options to make the work with different pools more clear and simple.

After this release focused on user-friendliness, we’re striving for a big content related step in fall. With release 2023.2 DSSplus will be available to a group of super users for extensive testing. This unique Decision Support System will be able to support dispatching actively and in real time. It’s presentation at the InnoTrans in Berlin 2022 was met with great interest and it’s release is highly anticipated ever since.

On June 14. & 15. 2023 the annual User Group Meeting took place, this time in Freiburg (Breisgau). As with the previous meetings, there was ample opportunity for conversations, both on a professional and personal level.

On the first day of the event, especially the presentation on the progress of DSS and DSSplus was met with great interest. One of the focal points was the planning of the personnel & vehicle rotations. With this enhancement, the planning of a whole week can be achieved in under a minute. Furthermore, there were the long-desired news of DSSplus. The innovative Decision Suport System attracted much attention when it was announced at the Innotrans 2022; with the Release 2023.2, DSSplus will be available to a group of Super-Users for intensive testing.

On the second day there were fascinating talks on digitalization of communication and possible future designs for work scheduling. Here, the participants exchanged their experiences and thoughts in a constructive dialog. Toward the end of the event the universal interface ‚Route‘ and the Road Map for the fully integrated depot planning were presented: This is a unique feature, which supports the entire train parking process in an optimal way.

The Qnamic team was happy to exchange opinions with the users in a productive environment. We’re already looking forward to next year’s event!

Dispatchers of railway companies deal with disruptions on a daily basis. There are various types of disruptions (construction works, vehicle malfunctions, lack of personnel, track outages, etc.) and they often lead to further disruptions, making them very complex and unclear. It’s the task of dispatchers to solve these challenging problems as quickly as possible. The feature ‘Disruption Management’ by Qnamic makes the situation more clear, reduces sources of error and supports them in ensuring safe and smooth operations:

A concise planning board offers an optimal overview over the disruptions to be taken care of to the dispatcher. When opening a new disruption case, templates help with structuring and categorizing the problem. To ensure that no case gets overlooked on a busy day, every case has to be closed with a brief report before it gets removed from the planning grid.

The feature channels the attention of the dispatcher. If they suspend work on a case, the case will be paused. This way the dispatcher is always focused on the current case and keeps an overview even over a multitude of disruptions . On the flip side, multiple dispatchers can work on a single case together. Every change in a disruption case is documented so that everybody involved knows the current status. Furthermore, the documentation gives a possibility for a posterior analysis of the case.

But the tool also helps actively to resolve disruptions: In a situation where personnel is needed at short notice, it shows a clear table to the dispatcher with available and suitable personnel. By determining according parameters, the tool prevents violations of work time rules and helps the dispatcher to find an optimal solution.

Related disruptions can be connected, enabling the dispatcher to swap resources between the different cases, without assigning them several times.

The feature ‘Disruption Management’  unravels chaotic situations, makes them manageable and supports the dispatcher in finding solutions. In the process, sources of errors are prevented and circumnavigated. The comprehensive documentation allows a posterior analysis and valuation of processes and their adjustment if necessary. With this tool you can meet disruptions calmly and effectively. 

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