RFC North Sea - Med fully supports the Redesign of the International Timetabling Process: "TTR for Smart Capacity Management". Please find below some basic information on the project and our involvement.
Timetable Redesign Basics
Incomplete harmonisation of timetabling procedures between European countries makes it difficult to cooperate at international level. To remedy this unsatisfactory situation, both RailNetEurope (RNE) and Forum Train Europe (FTE) agreed that changes to these procedures are needed. These two organisations are united in their goal to improve the timetable planning process. Thus, FTE and RNE launched the TTR project. They are being supported by the European Rail Freight Association (ERFA).
The TTR project team – consisting of experts from the fields of market, timetabling, construction works, IT and legal matters, recruited from all parties concerned (RUs, IMs, supporting companies)- took up the challenge by asking the market to spell out its needs, which are:
- Flexibility, especially in the freight sector
- Possibility for earlier commercial use of paths, e.g. earlier ticket sales
- Reduction of peak loads and redundant work
- Higher stability and quality of timetables
Based on this input, IMs and RUs then started to define the possible approaches for a new process. After several years of planning in the TTR project, the redesigned timetabling process finally took shape as an innovative and market-oriented process. For more information, click here.
Timetable Redesign Pilot Amsterdam-Brussels
Infrabel and Prorail have jointly started a TTR Pilot Project, which from 2022 consists of the lines between Amsterdam and Brussels in cooperation with RNE, FTE, Rail Freight Corridor North Sea - Mediterranean and the concerned RUs.
The goal of this project is to gradually implement elements of the TTR process, including the publication of a Capacity Model for the concerned lines, and an offer for “Rolling Planning”.
All pilot specificities can be found via the following portal: https://rne.eu/capacity-management/ttr/implementation/pilots-and-mvp/
It contains: The Pilot Information Document : it describes all specificities concerning the request process, deadlines, allocation priority rules, etc.
The Capacity Model and supply describes in detail the capacity available for passenger and freight traffic timetable.
Please find below the most important impact for applicants:
- International capacity requests for the annual timetable follow the existing process and deadlines and have to be requested via PCS:
- Via the RFC North Sea – Mediterranean (RFC2) or RFC North Sea – Baltic (RFC8) for the available PaPs;
- For tailor made paths.
- Please find the pilot catalogues for the available capacity on the dedicated Capacity page
- The pilot Capacity can be consulted via the ECMT tool.
The applicants are requested to take into account the capacity partitioning as indicated via the Capacity Supply;
From TT2024, the pilot will put the publication of capacity via the Rolling Planning process on hold, as after four years, the main findings are well documented, while the hybrid context in which this process is tested does not allow for a direct added value. As Rolling Planning capacity intends to support international rail freight, the concept of safeguarded capacity is still being investigated on the pilot, in a more pragmatic manner, in order to find a functioning process to gap the time until TTR will be fully implementedThe C-OSS of the RFC is deeply involved in the project. Please do not hesitate to contact him, or the Pilot Manager Thomas Vanbeveren (see contact details below) for any additional info.
TTR Implementation
In December 2018, the RNE General Assembly approved the launch of the project ‘TTR Implementation’. This project covers the endorsement of national TTR projects and the establishment of a TTR Programme. In addition to the national implementation projects, RNE is permanently investigating possibilities to accelerate TTR implementation for example with pilots and Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), before the currently foreseen full implementation from TT2029
If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact one of the national implementation managers of the RFC:
Infrabel: Thomas Vanbeveren ; +32 492 91 49 76 ; thomasgerd.vanbeveren@infrabel.be
ProRail: Floris Visser; + 31 (0) 6 27 88 35 54; floris.visser@prorail.nl
SNCF-Réseau: Sebastien Boyer; +33 6 03 27 86 16; sebastien.boyer@sncf.fr
ACF: Kathleen Pelte; (+352) 26 19 12 44; Kathleen.Pelte@acf.etat.lu
Joint Swiss project: Roger Beutler; +41 79 227 77 70; roger.beutler@sbb.ch
