Efficient technologies in railway transport

The balance of interests of passengers of high – speed, passenger and suburban trains with the interests of shippers and consignees is put in the first place when developing schedules for various categories of freight trains.

Synchronization of the timing of the introduction of a new timetable and the approval of the annual budget of JSC “Russian Railways” eliminated many problems of inconsistency of their parameters. Now these key documents begin to act simultaneously, and not with a gap of six months, as it was before.

The created traffic management vertical has consistently reformed the transportation management system. Traffic control centers have appeared, where today all the necessary means and technologies of traffic control are concentrated within the boundaries of roads. This made it possible to significantly reduce the load on the dispatching apparatus. Thanks to new information systems, the average length of dispatching stations has increased by almost a third.

However, in order to further improve the quality of transportation activities, new, landfill technologies were needed, the first step of which was the creation of seven traction resource management centers. Their task, at the current stage, was to work out the principles of managing the locomotive fleet on elongated shoulders and create end-to-end technology no longer within the boundaries of roads, but at longer technological ranges. Today, the principles of landfill management are planned to be implemented on other important elements of the transportation process – routing of car traffic, end-to-end technology for conducting “windows”, a plan for the formation and organization of train traffic.

At the same time, at all stages of technological transformations, the most important role belongs to railway stations as a key management link. It is here that the production processes of all verticals are connected into a single whole – traffic, infrastructure, traction, service provision, therefore, the powers and responsibilities of station managers as managers and coordinators should be strengthened.

Marshalling yards, which were called route factories by our grandfathers, were, are and will be the basis for the uninterrupted operation of the network. This definition is still relevant today.

The company has adopted and is implementing a Program for the development of marshalling yards of JSC “Russian Railways” until 2025. This is a strategic document defining a ten-year perspective and targets for the development of traffic volumes, the stages of modernization of pre-node stations, the transition from the information regime of automated systems to the development of control solutions.

Today, the network loads and unloads more than 100 thousand wagons every day. Everything connected with the provision of loading and unloading, with the planning of cargo transportation, is included in the range of priority tasks to improve the operation of the station complex. It is very important here that the stations become a single center of responsibility for the quality of these processes, for effective interaction with shippers on the ground. And this approach will be implemented in stages.

All the tasks that Russian Railways Holding solves in the field of technology should be focused on the needs of the client, ensuring the competitiveness and quality of our services.

The logistics companies that are part of the holding actively develop comprehensive services, provide the organization of intermodal transportation not only in the Russian, but also in the international transport market. Together with the Center for Branded Transport Services, these companies carry out purposeful work to create a comfortable technological environment for shippers through coordination of interaction, reduction of paperwork, creation of a CRM system, cataloging of services. This year, the number of documents that a client needs to issue in order to access transportation services has decreased from several dozen to four.

The evaluation of the work by the largest community of customers – passengers, of course, is especially important for the company. JSC “Russian Railways” conducts comprehensive work to improve passenger service.

The railway stations have also changed qualitatively – today they increasingly meet the requirements of the time, and this work continues.

It is possible to interest a passenger in railway transport services, first of all, strictly observing the timetable.

It must be remembered that the development of the transportation management process requires new approaches to work with huge information flows.

At the present stage, information technologies have already provided a significant qualitative step in management, but their potential is far from being exhausted. A new requirement for information systems is the economic assessment of decisions made.

Thanks to the “AS-Model” system, for the first time, an integrated approach to the formation of the optimal option for passing trains based on a comparison of the cost of infrastructure sections has been provided. Within the framework of this development, planning tasks are solved, both long – term (capital investments) and short-term – for technological aspects of operational work in the form of an optimal, cost-calculated plan for passing car traffic through the network.

And of course, the development of technology is impossible without modern information management systems. A special place among such projects of the company is occupied by the “Unified intelligent control system and automation of production processes in railway transport – ISUZHT”. The main purpose of its creation is to increase the economic efficiency of the Russian Railways holding through the implementation of coordinated management and a unified information model describing end-to-end production processes. The essence of the project is to create an automated decision support center that allows you to manage production processes in real time, planning, modeling and predicting the development of situations in general.

The result of the work carried out will be the achievement of the target parameters set by the holding’s Development Strategy until 2030.

The state is the sole shareholder of JSC “Russian Railways”, and, of course, the solution of state tasks is the main priority. At the same time, the company, as a commercial organization, is obliged to work profitably. It should have resources for development, opportunities to offer customers new attractive transport products.

To solve these problems, a program was developed to optimize operational and investment activities. The achievement of the program parameters is ensured through the implementation of measures aimed at improving the efficiency of the use of traction rolling stock, the introduction of landfill technologies, increasing the level of routing, the quality of work of marshalling yards, increasing labor productivity, improving procurement activities, etc. Particular attention is paid to the issues of reducing unproductive losses arising at the junctions of interaction between production units. Here, the company uses both technological and economic incentive measures, for example, through a system for monitoring the execution of work orders between production units.

The company will have to solve the issues of further efficiency improvement through the introduction of new technologies, technical and management solutions in the organization of the transportation process. Reserves are actively used in expanding the possibilities of combining professions, in organizing the work of locomotive crews in one person. The quality of repair of infrastructure facilities is improving, including through the use of progressive repair methods, tightening the conditions for commissioning. Serious attention is paid to the efficiency of using low-intensity lines.

The main principle is that every ruble spent and invested should benefit and work for the efficiency of the industry.

The implementation of the tasks set by the Structural Reform Program has shown that the company is able to develop and adapt to the needs of the market. This is demonstrated by the analysis of the performance indicators of Russian and foreign railways. The load load on the network of JSC “Russian Railways” is the second in the world after China, and it is almost 9 times higher than in Germany. With the length of the network two times less than in the USA, Russian railways provide cargo turnover comparable to first-class roads in North America, where there is practically no passenger traffic, and passenger traffic volumes are 2 times higher than such passenger-oriented systems as the railways of France and Germany. It is obvious that Russian railways have their own unique path of development, taking into account the scale of the technological, technical, economic and social challenges facing the industry.

1.2 Vertical traffic control development based on scientific and technical achievements and informatization

Historically, the railway transportation process management system consisted of 4 levels: divisions of the Company’s central office – relevant services in the railway administration – departments in railway departments – railway stations. Each of these divisions, starting from the transportation services in the departments of roads, was in dual subordination: functionally – to the department of transportation Management, and administratively – to the heads of the railway and departments. Such a management mechanism led to contradictions in solving the company’s strategic tasks set at the central level and tactical ones at the regional level.

To eliminate these contradictions, the implementation of new solutions in the transportation process management system, on June 2, 2009, the Board of Directors decided to create a Central Directorate of Traffic Management – a branch of JSC “Russian Railways”.

The formation of a vertically integrated transportation process management structure in the context of the continuation of the structural reform of the development of the Russian Railways Holding corresponded to the target model of the railway transport services market approved in May 2007 at a meeting of the Government Commission on the Development of Industry, Technology and Transport.

The creation of the Central Directorate of Traffic Management (hereinafter referred to as the Central Directorate) completed the transition from a four-level train traffic management scheme to a three-level one, primarily due to the concentration of the dispatching apparatus of regional directorates, while interacting with the other directorates of the production unit, the Central Directorate concentrates in its hands the entire complex of functions related to the organization and management of transportation throughout their cycle.

In the context of the ongoing changes in the transport market, throughout the entire period of the Central Directorate’s activity, the technological tools used were constantly improved, the management system was consistently developed.

The centralization of train traffic management allowed for the introduction of end-to-end technologies and the application of landfill traction control principles.

It should be noted that the improvement of the management principles in the Central Directorate has allowed to create an effective structure that responds promptly to changes in the transport services market.

The development of a competitive sector in the field of freight car operations required new solutions to improve the efficiency of transportation. In this regard, the formation of park management technology has become the most important direction for the Central Directorate.

The result of this work was a Unified network technological process, which reflects the key principles of optimizing the use of rolling stock. In order to implement the technological solutions provided for by the unified network technological process, with the active participation of the Central Directorate, the necessary changes to the transport legislation were formed and initiated. Some of them have already been reflected in various regulatory legal acts.

The improvement of the technology and management system of the transportation process allowed the directorate to successfully fulfill the tasks set by the Company. After the completion of the branch formation stage, positive dynamics is noted in key volume and quality indicators.

Being one of the key divisions, the Central Directorate actively participated in the development of the Development Strategy of the Russian Railways Holding for the period up to 2030. Strategic initiatives have been developed to improve transportation activities, which provide for a whole range of production issues, and their implementation will give significant technological and economic effects.

Thus, in accordance with the control parameters of the state of the Russian Railways holding for the period up to 2030, one of the key indicators of the quality of the transportation process – the share of cargo shipments delivered on time – should be 95 percent.

The presented draft Program has been developed taking into account strategic initiatives in the field of transportation process management. It identifies five main vectors of development of the Central Directorate of Traffic Management, which are decomposed into consolidated measures to ensure their implementation.

The first vector is the transition from the regional principles of transportation process management to the planning and organization of train traffic at the landfills of the network.

As noted above, the work on the organization of the transportation process within the “polygons” has been carried out in JSC “Russian Railways” since 2012, since the creation of Traction Resource Management Centers. The positive experience of organizing the work of the locomotive complex in the new conditions confirms the need to consider the next stage of optimizing the transportation process by transferring train traffic management from the road level to the landfill.

It should be noted that there are currently several definitions of the term polygon. In particular, it is understood as a polygon of the road, the work of locomotives and locomotive crews, the following of heavy trains, etc. To form unified approaches to determining the polygon, boundary criteria, determining their optimal number, it is proposed to perform a number of scientific works in this section of the Program.

The main task that is being solved within the framework of the first section of the Program is the transition from the functional management structure to the construction of production cycles using the principles of the process approach.

Taking into account the existing experience in organizing the work of the locomotive fleet, in our opinion, the proposed management model will eliminate the losses existing at the junctions of roads, will provide additional consolidation of the work of all branches involved in transportation to meet the main quality indicators of work. This is extremely important at the current time, when it is necessary to ensure reasonable cost reduction and accelerated revenue growth for the holding.

One of the important activities of the Program section is the development of unified technological processes of landfills linking the work of the Dispatch Center for Transportation Management, the Traction Resource Management Center and other enterprises operating at the landfill. When forming them, the principles of the process approach will be widely applied, which allow optimizing the activities of the main production branches and eliminating individual technological operations that do not participate in creating value for customers and do not affect the safety, reliability and quality of management decision-making.

The transition to landfill principles of transportation process management will require updating the list of existing quantitative and qualitative indicators. Their new structure should determine not only the work of the landfill as a whole, but also the contribution of each directorate to their implementation.

The next step aimed at improving the efficiency of the transportation process is the development of uniform requirements for management facilities located at the landfill, which will ensure the through passage of trains of unified mass and length. It is under these requirements that it is necessary to form infrastructure development programs.

Improving the efficiency of marshalling yards is also one of the most important areas of the first block of measures.

Thus, in order to increase their processing capacity, in particular by eliminating recycling, it is proposed to form a program for the development of auxiliary – pre-node stations with the transfer of processing of local car traffic to them. To improve the efficiency of the port stations, it is proposed to form a comprehensive program for the development of the infrastructure of railway port stations and port infrastructure.

The second vector is the development and implementation of information technologies and modern technical means.

This is one of the most important sections of the Program, since at present it is the development of information technologies that directly affects the quality of the transportation process, from making operational decisions on the organization of transportation activities to providing an appropriate analytical base.

One of the priority tasks in the development of automated control systems for the transportation complex is the transition from information systems to information management systems. The implementation of the stated principles laid the foundation for a new project – an intelligent railway transport management system. The system under development provides: