Crew Diagramming

TRACS™

The TRACS™ software suite has been developed by Leeds University and is being made available by TRACSIS, a "spin out" company. It has been developed over a period of 20 years and first introduced successfully to the UK rail industry by Scotrail. It has proved very successful in identifying possible train crew savings from more efficient diagramming - whilst adhering to all relevant diagramming rules. On average a 3 - 5% one-off saving in diagrammed hours compared with manual diagramming is claimed by TRACSIS, and this level of saving has been found by RWA Rail in franchise bid work and studies for TOCs. This saving is achieved because TRACS™ seeks to build optimal diagrams from scratch each time it is run whereas the train planner simply does not have time to do this. Once the base model is set up, TRACS™ enables the planner to undertake "optioneering" analysis quickly, with diagrams for different terms and conditions or depot locations output in a matter of a day or two rather than many weeks.