Create implementable schedules that honor all business constraints and maintenance time windows.
Today, there is an increasing need for more trains to move more passengers and cargo over rail networks. However, railways are reaching their peak capacity.
To meet this challenge, railroads need to operate their networks more efficiently by using their available infrastructure, assets and equipment while maximizing velocity and getting the most out of their people.
This simulation-guided optimization system schedules multiple types of trains in a network while maintaining safe distances and avoiding deadlocks. RailMAX optimizes decisions in near real time to reduce the need for manual disruption management.
Schedulers can use RailMAX to plan train schedules that minimize congestion and maximize asset utilization. Schedulers can also experiment with manual scenarios to adjust objectives, constraints, assets, tactics, etc. before publishing the best schedule.
In the past, controllers made meet-and-pass and meet-and-overtake decisions that significantly impacted the velocity and efficiency of the rail network. With RailMAX, decisions can be made automatically, allowing controllers to focus on execution while still having the option to make manual changes, if needed.
Unplanned maintenance, train delays, cancellations and other network disturbances often require schedule changes. RailMAX can refresh or replace schedules for the next 12-24 hours (or longer) within minutes. This empowers controllers to reset network activity in near real time and see the impact on KPIs like track maintenance, utilization, velocity, dwells and queues.
RailMAX provides detailed visualizations of train plans, schedules, train graphs and key performance indicators to stakeholders, tuned to their needs, enabling them to align their activity to network activity. RailMAX provides live tables, charts, timelines, asset graphs, Electronic Train Graphs and train animations.
Run sufficient trains while providing enough slots for maintenances by creating maintenance plans that take into account train schedules. Maintenance personnel will be able to perform better with the visibility gained from predictable train operations. This will result in better overall track health, which will yield higher network capacity.
RailMAX will be the single source for estimating the arrival times of trains. All external systems, including yards, end facilities and inventory and resource management, will use RailMAX outputs for complete coordination. RailMAX will provide a solid framework for coordination and communication across your organization, as it will report on order management and train scheduling and will have an intuitive schematic view.
Most railroads suffer from capacity constraints or underutilization. The core function of RailMAX is to optimize the performance of your network, typically resulting in a 5% to 10% improvement through additional trains and debottlenecking. It can also be set to specific objectives, such as increasing revenue, lowering cost or optimizing maintenance.
Train dwell is one of the biggest pain points for railroads. Dwell times reduce asset utilization and increase train cycle time. RailMAX can reduce train dwell by 5% to 10%, which can increase overall network velocity and reliability.
Human decision making in rail networks is usually decentralized and involves many people with difference experiences. Standardizing and making the best decision when needed can be problematic. RailMAX’s model combines the best of human and system decision making and applies the right decision, at the right time, consistently, every time.
Railroads can run more trains while providing sufficient slots for maintenances with RailMAX’s effective maintenance plans that honor train schedules. RailMAX’s extensive visibility tools helps maintenance personnel collaborate with operators, controllers and schedulers to reduce downtime impacts.
Rail by Optym is a suite of network planning and scheduling systems that help in every aspect of the rail business – train scheduling, locomotive scheduling, crew scheduling, yard planning and train movement planning.
Our data analytics solutions prepare the right data in the right format. Our simulation solutions then use this data to perform a variety of what-if studies and recommend the optimal configuration. Our optimization products use the configuration to evaluate countless options and recommend the best one.
TrainMAX is an interactive decision support system that creates an optimal railroad schedule. TrainMAX creates train schedules while honoring yard and track capacities and optimizing global expenditure on railcars, locomotives and crews. This has resulted in annual cost reductions of tens of millions of dollars for our clients.
TrainMAX determines many variables, including the number of trains to run; the origin, destination and route of each train; days of train operation; where railcars need to be picked up and dropped off; and train arrival and departure times at each location.
CrewDESIGN assigns qualified rail crews to trains in the rail network and generates an optimal crew rotation plan while honoring a variety of crew union rules and Federal Railway Administration (FRA) regulations related to work and rest rules.
CrewDESIGN reduces total crew operating costs, including crew pay, benefits and travel expenditures. The software’s optimization engine is packaged as a web-based decision support system with data review/edit functions, solution analysis, reports, charts and maps as standard features.
RailBIS is an advanced business intelligence system that allows planners to analyze data and derive useful information and insights that help create better rail plans and improve operations. RailBIS analyzes train movement data and displays it through a graphical interface using maps, charts, histograms and tables.
RailBIS can determine deficiencies in the plan, identify areas for improvement in the plan’s execution and perform root cause analysis through drill-down capabilities.
RailVIEWR is a data analytics system that gives visibility to rail service measurements and provides data for detailed analysis.
RailVIEWR classifies service measurements in several ways – by customer, car type, location, market, shipper or receiver. Compare service measurements with the organization’s goals and receive real-time response to all user inquiries.
YardSYM simulates the movement of trains and railcars in a yard with over 95% accuracy.
YardSYM uses sophisticated decision modules for train placement, grouping of railcars into blocks, grouping of blocks into trains and train departures. Users can identify yard bottlenecks and investigate ways to remove them.
LocoPLAN creates a repeatable weekly locomotive operating plan that specifies the active and deadhead locomotives assigned to each train, creates locomotive connections from inbound trains to outbound trains and generates recommendations for light travel locomotives.
LocoPLAN ensures that each train receives the optimal horsepower to pull the train at the right speed while demonstrating 3% to 5% savings in locomotive operating costs.
YardMAX is a real-time yard management system that provides visibility of all assets in the yard, including trains and railcars. Users can search for cars with specific properties, see car locations in the yard and drill down for further analysis.
YardMAX features an intuitive dashboard for a historical analysis of yard KPIs such as yard inventory, dwell time and arrivals and departures.