Automatic train route setting in Czech Republic

Abstract

The operation of railway traffic from a single dispatching control centre ensures high quality of traffic management. Even better traffic control could be achieved through the automation of the dispatchers’ routine work. It saves dispatchers´ time which he can be devoted to solving conflicts caused by delayed trains. The process of planning the traffic and the execution of this plan are two independent activities which have to be done simultaneously. The dispatcher of the remote controlled lines has not just to optimize the railway traffic, he has to care for the properly train route setting as well. The new system of automatic train route setting should help him by doing much work on above mentioned activities for him. System that fulfils these requirements is automatic train route setting system. System or train dispatcher just decides how to handle the conflict situation and the function of automatic train route setting will execute the command at the proper time. This trend can be also seen in other countries. Very helpful for dispatchers who control the railway traffic is the graphic timetable. There is a common used application called GTN on Czech railways which is supplied together with the electronic interlocking from the AZD Praha. This application shows the actual and expected graphic timetable in the most appropriate form for dispatcher and moreover provides many other support functions. New designed function of the graphic train route editor enables precising the predicted timetable and consequently gaining the most probable prediction in the next moments. Given that GTN knows the actual timetable, dispose of data of trains and knows the exact train location in real time, the GTN is nowadays a powerful tool for decision support for traffic control staff. Therefore, GTN is an essential part of the system of automatic train route setting which is now being developed. Using the existing electronic interlocking, their remote control and the GTN application seems to be the easiest way how to implement automatic train route setting system on the infrastructure of the Czech railways.