European rail operators have a new tool available to allow them to reduce delays on trains and and handle disruptions, as they happen in real time, more effectively while maintaining the same level of safety. Thanks to ARRIVAL, a research project funded by the European Union, it will now be possible to ensure more effective use of rail networks, in terms of both timetabling and dealing with unforeseen disruptions.

The key to minimising rail travel delays is to optimise planning and avoid any domino effects that traffic disruption can cause. Decisions on waiting delays for connecting trains, the order in which trains use tracks, platform reallocations due to delays, etc., involve complicated logistics and little time to update timetables and keep passenger inconvenience at a minimum.

Traditionally, disruptions have been dealt with by railway operators using very little computer assistance (usually graphic software to visualise what is going on). The new methods can determine optimal train schedules and what should happen when the trains are running late.

ARRIVAL solutions to reduce delays in rail traffic

The ARRIVAL project involved new concepts and algorithmic research methods that considerably advanced the theory necessary to tackle large and complex optimisation problems – like those in railway networks – efficiently. ARRIVAL’s success is based on the development of new algorithms that can be used to organise railway infrastructure management more efficiently: from train scheduling, platform allocation, staff distribution and freight loads to dealing with disruptions such as train rerouting or rescheduling as they happen in real time.

From 2006 to 2009, researchers from 12 universities (in Greece, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and The Netherlands) and French railway company SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français) worked on the ARRIVAL project.

€2.6 million of the total cost of €3.2 million was financed under the Commission's overall research programme (Sixth Framework Programme 2001-2006) within the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) research scheme. This scheme supports high-risk research in information technologies.

ICT European research success: meeting at ICT 2010

More EU-funded ICT research success stories will be presented at ICT 2010, Europe's largest ICT research event, in Brussels from 27 to 29 September 2010. More than 100 exhibits showing the latest advances in digital technologies developed thanks to EU funding will be on display.