August, 2023 – The Railways of the Slovak Republic are involved in the pan-European initiative to increase the competitiveness of rail transport (TTR). YMS is concluding a feasibility study that will thoroughly evaluate the benefits and requirements of the project for Slovakia.

Capacity experience

“TTR is an ambitious project that requires analytical preparation from all countries. The main idea is to modernize the railway capacity management in Europe so that there are no more changes, delays, and waste. YMS has been supplying capacity management systems in the gas industry for more than a decade, and last year we won the Central European competition for the creation of a new generation of Eustream business dispatching. As a software specialist for planning the capacity of line infrastructure, we were a competent and ultimately successful bidder in the public tender to conduct a study in Slovakia,” says the director of the YMS network branch division, Radoslav Béreš.

The fours stages of the study

The study takes half a year and four stages and will provide a comprehensive view of the project based on the conditions of Slovakia. It defines how TTR will help the Slovak railway infrastructure, but also the activities that RCS must carry out to be successful. It will evaluate the technical feasibility of the project on our infrastructure, financial sustainability, and socioeconomic justification.

Capacity management issues

“Today, carriers have to order train routes 8 to 20 months in advance. A large percentage of the ordered capacity is therefore “just in case”, as they cannot predict the capacity they will actually need in advance. The result is a much higher number of requests than the actual capacity, and up to 75-80% of requests are therefore constantly processed. This causes large a large loss of resources for carriers and infrastructure managers,” explains the project manager and leader of the feasibility study at YMS, Tomáš Mišovič, on one of the problems of European rail transport.

Increasing appeal of the railway

The TTR project wants to “clean up” these problems and strengthen the competitiveness of railways in Europe. “When you transport goods or people by car or bus, you just need to get behind the steering wheel and turn on Google Maps. The railroad doesn’t work like that. You must book the train route at least a year in advance, each railway has different operating conditions, different fees, and different rules (different traction power supply, security, signaling system). Another problem is that you can’t predict when and where your reserved route will be restricted, redirected, or rescheduled at the last minute,” explains Jozef Dudák from the Department of Project Management of the RCS. The TTR project is mainly intended to stabilize timetables, introduce modern capacity planning, prepare the system for timely decision-making and information on short-term and long-term restrictions on routes, and unify compensation payments for delays or blocking of capacity. It is expected that the launch of the project, after the initial investments in its preparation, will save time and money for both the railway infrastructure managers and the transporters in the long term.

 

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*The project called Timetabling and Capacity Redesign (hereinafter referred to as TTR) is being prepared by RailNetEurope (RNE) and Forum Train Europe (FTE) with the support of the European Freight Transport Association (ERFA) and the European Commission (EC). It should be implemented during the years 2024 and 25. Funds are allocated for its implementation from the Recovery Plan, and preparations are underway in Slovakia directly under the supervision of the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic.