Currently, rail traffic management (TMS) consists of planning and control systems that operate at different levels, from a single station to an operating area comprising several stations and hundreds of kilometers of track. These systems differ primarily in their ability to make changes to the system in limited areas (e.g. national timetable planning versus track changes at a station). These changes are usually time-critical in active operation, require a high calculation speed and sometimes reach a high degree of complexity depending on their scope. For this reason, the optimizations are divided into 50 areas. With this area-based optimization, local optimizations can be carried out quickly, creating the new challenge of supra-regional optimization, where normal control systems are not sufficient to meet the needs of passengers and railroad companies in the case of events affecting more than one area. 

An adapted timetable generated by the planning system, on the other hand, would solve many inefficiencies caused by the event and provide some information to users, but its calculation time is currently very long and not suitable to meet the current demand in a timely manner. Thus, the main objective of this project proposal is the automatic generation of adjusted timetables (i.e. daily timetables) based on the development of a method for scaling simulation and optimization models of rail operations at a supra-regional level.

The adapted timetables must meet the criteria of non-discrimination in terms of service type (IC, S-Bahn) and train operators and be able to provide a consolidated solution within one day from the time of the event.