Dear PCS user,

We would like to help you in the path request preparation. Also, since some scheduled training with Rail Freight Corridors in February had to be canceled we would like to encourage you to visit our PCS Documentation library. Here you will find our most comprehensive up-to-date information about some major topics :

• How to access PCS
• How to create a dossier with PaPs and without PaPs. If you are new to PCS we recommend reading our training documents.
• How to edit dossier:
  • Basic data: to change the title of your dossier, edit international train number, etc. Please note that you might find there a new field with Train ID, which is planned for future use of TAF TSI standard. As an end-user, we recommend not to enter here anything today.
  • Agencies: to change participating agencies, leading roles and production-only agencies
  • Train parameters: to edit and copy parameters to other locations (common parameters and IM specific parameters)
  • Calendar and Offset: to change the calendar of your subpaths and edit the offset in the timetable
  • Subpaths with PaPs (add PaP TO a Subpath or As a Subpath), especially important for freight Applicants. Since the new PCS EC version, it’s possible to include PaPs “next to each other” not only below as it was in the former version.

Our documentation library has been redesigned and we made our library more powerful and easy to use.

(Move your mouse over the picture and click control+click will open the link)

With the new modern document structure we collected the documents into four main categories:

• Videos: video library of several practical use cases, such as how to use the dashboard, the searches, how to create a dossier
• Guides: How to…ex. use control, accept and downgrade indicators, search for products and various other help documents
• References: contains the basic information, pcs constraints, process documents (including PCS process guidelines that contain all the important milestones and automatic promotions), phase descriptions (short descriptions of the phases, including the permissions and possible transitions to other phases), more general and technical information
• FAQs: we are developing this site on particular topics and ensuring that our library remains meaningful to the current and future audiences.

Some important changes due to the new PCS version:

• Territories: instead of the former main and subsidiary timetables, the PCS EC version stores the timetables in so-called subpaths, organized in territories. A territory means an Applicant – IM pair. Be careful, put only those locations inside a territory that belongs there! PCS doesn’t check currently if the selected location fits to a particular territory, e.g. selecting PEBERHOLM (Trafikverket) to a Mercitalia – RFI territory would not cause an error. If you like to introduce points outside your territory with other agencies, use the add territory option
• Calendar consistency: the new PCS version pays special attention to border harmonization in terms of times and running days. You will notice that you get warnings that your calendar has extra running days or fewer days than your partner. In some special cases, this could be a valid option, when your train doesn’t run all the days the whole route. For this purpose, we added “Alternative origin and destination” options. If you are unfamiliar with this feature, you can find more information here.
• Deleting things: if you like to delete something, you will always find the proper option for that. Meaning, you can delete a
  • Point
  • Sub-path
  • Territory

You just need to find the red bin icon to do so. For sub-path and locations, you need to open the sub-path first for editing, for territories, you will find it below the territories. With that, you will kick out those agencies from the dossier. Be careful! It’s a nonreversible action.

We would like to warn you that the new PCS version supports only modern browsers, such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, etc. We don’t support anymore Internet Explorer. If you are not allowed to install commercial products like Google Chrome, you shall still find Microsoft Edge on your PC as it’s the default browser of Windows.

Regarding the new structure of timetables in PCS, please check also the attached PDF with PCS EC News that contains some additional information with definitions explained with pictures.

In the meantime, we keep working to improve our document library to increase user satisfaction! We are here to HELP and do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions: support.pcs@rne.eu.