Efficient technologies in railway transport

It is obvious that the Federal Cargo Company, as the largest operator with all the resources and competencies, should become a platform for the consolidation of parks. But in order to start this process, we need proactive decisions from the regulatory authorities. This is the liberalization of the carriage component or the establishment of a rational tariff corridor. In the absence of these tools, a work model that is effective in relation to technology will be non-market and uncompetitive.

So far, we cannot be satisfied with the level of development of landfill technologies. It is obvious that it is impossible to manage the transportation process within the boundaries of large polygons in manual mode. We need not just an automated, but a control system. In this regard, I would like to once again draw attention to the need to develop such an obviously complex project of a unified intelligent control system and automation of production processes in railway transport.

Such projects include the development of passenger traffic in the Moscow transport hub. It is based on services that are really in demand and provides for comprehensive financing from JSC “Russian Railways”, the federal budget and the funds of the city of Moscow. This is a large complex project, the experience of which can be used in the development of large agglomerations on the railway network.

Even more difficult are the tasks of achieving parameters that depend on the coherence of the actions of three or more business blocks of the holding. In order to ensure a break-even level in accordance with the financial plan approved by the government, it is necessary to reach the target figures for revenue. In this regard, although revenues are generated directly in the transport, logistics and passenger business blocks, the contribution of the infrastructure component, including its locomotive part, is largely decisive. At the same time, it is extremely important to ensure that the planned indicators are achieved by subsidiaries, interaction with which should also be carried out based on the priorities of joint development of business blocks.

There are still a lot of problems in the infrastructure complex, and first of all in the economy of the way. In this regard, it is necessary to analyze the management system in detail once again, identify its critical points, strengthen coordination and control over the processes of repair and maintenance of infrastructure in the regions.

Of course, a huge role in the issues of security and effective management in the new conditions belongs to the social block of the holding. The improvement of the system of recruitment and placement of personnel, the development of corporate training of managers and specialists in accordance with the requirements of the time should be continued.

According to these and other indicators of long-term development, the Board of Directors will evaluate the activities of the Russian Railways holding and make decisions on the implementation of its development strategy.

The formation of a full-fledged system of indicators linking customer orientation with the end-to-end processes of business units, responsibility for their execution will allow achieving a significant increase in the efficiency of the company’s activities, improving the quality of transport services and making a significant step in solving the strategic tasks set for Russian Railways.

1.4 Innovative activity development in the management of the Russian Railways Holding

The key indicators of the company’s innovation activity are such indicators as labor productivity growth, the volume and efficiency of innovative technical means implemented, energy efficiency of the transportation process, the number of security documents received for the results of intellectual activity.

In the conditions of a difficult economic situation, the company is forced to reduce the amount of funding for the work provided for by the scientific and technical development plan. At the same time, the share of funds from the business community and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research attracted for research and development work increases annually.

In accordance with the import substitution program, together with the Italian company ESM S.P.A., a multi-station microprocessor centralization system with integrated auto-locking is being created. For the first time, a project with open source software and a computer-aided design system is being implemented according to Russian regulatory safety requirements. It is envisaged to use low-maintenance floor equipment of domestic production, i.e. the system will have a high level of adaptability. The cost of its life cycle will be 20% less compared to the currently supplied microprocessor centralization systems.

The technology of organizing the movement of freight trains according to energy-optimal schedules was further developed within the framework of train traffic management in the direction. A significant result of 2014 was the implementation of end-to-end planning of the train schedule and the virtually complete elimination of quasi-junctions between roads in the directions from Inskaya station to Chelyabinsk-Main and Yekaterinburg-Sortirovochny stations. Currently, more than 1.8 thousand locomotives are equipped with devices for informing the driver about the current energy-optimal train schedule, there is an automatic garter for trains of locomotives and locomotive crews. The use of this technology only at the specified landfill gave an annual energy savings of more than 120 million kWh and ensured the departure of freight trains according to the schedule at the level of 75%, the passage – at the level of 35%.

One of the key areas of implementation of the company’s scientific and technical policy is the introduction of innovations in the infrastructure complex, where the share of expenses for transportation activities is about 35% of the total. The priority here is to reduce the cost of the life cycle of objects, provided that the safety of the transportation process and a high level of reliability of technical means are ensured. A number of innovative solutions in infrastructure maintenance are presented at.

Exactly one hundred years ago, the world’s first track measuring car designed by Nikolai Emelyanovich Dolgov went on its first flight. And now Russian engineers are not giving up their positions in this high-tech segment. Thus, the diagnostic complexes “Era” and “Integral” are superior to foreign analogues “Archimedes” (Italy), IRIS 320 (France) both in terms of the number of controlled parameters and the degree of automation of management and information processing processes. A new stage in the development of mobile diagnostic tools was the first complex for monitoring the infrastructure of the Baikal-Amur mainline, created on the basis of the 2TE116 diesel locomotive. It replaces several cars of infrastructure diagnostics and, most importantly, during the inspection affects the track with an axial load of up to 23.5.

Analysis of the prospects for the development of diagnostic tools has shown the need to equip the infrastructure of high-speed electric trains “Sapsan” with diagnostic complexes. Russian specialists are creating an innovative on-board diagnostic system that evaluates the infrastructure of the St. Petersburg – Moscow line according to 76 parameters. The beginning of fundamentally new technologies of the XXI century has been laid, radically changing the structure of technical diagnostic tools and repeatedly increasing the efficiency and reliability of the information received.

Another example of the capabilities of the Russian design school is the implementation of a new approach to solving the problem of optimizing the interaction of rolling stock and track. The introduction of an asynchronous traction drive made it possible to reduce both unsprung masses and the impact on the path by 50%. The next step is to switch to software methods. Thus, the use of a new version of the traction converter software developed by specialists for 2ES10 and 2ES7 electric locomotives has significantly improved a number of indicators and reduced the impact of the locomotive on the path in small radius curves by a third.

For the first time on the road network, experimental operation of wagons with an axial load of 27 tc began to determine their impact on the track and artificial structures. The tests carried out on the Kovdor – Murmansk section of the Oktyabrskaya Railway will be completed in August 2015. But it can already be stated with confidence that very interesting results have been obtained, which are extremely important both for the current maintenance of the track and for the design of new-generation railcars.

The company is actively implementing the regulatory framework of the URRAN methodology. Currently, 10 interstate and national standards, 14 corporate standards, more than 60 methodological documents for various farms have been developed. One of the examples of the effectiveness of such documentation can be the results of the introduction of a methodology developed by our specialists over the entire 1520 mm gauge space, which allows us to determine freight cars to be decommissioned according to the reliability and safety indicators of cast trolley parts. More than 3 thousand. The side frames were seized according to the instructions of Roszheldornadzor and more than 13 thousand more were rejected at technical inspection points, joint work with specialists of the railways of Austria and Switzerland showed our priority in this area.

Currently, the development of a regulatory framework for determining the physical deterioration of infrastructure facilities is being completed.

URRAN indicators are used in the preparation of requirements for the purchase of products for JSC “Russian Railways”. It is especially important to use the URRAN methodology to optimize the planning of facilities for modernization and repair of the track in conditions of lack of funding.

The technical regulations of the Customs Union stipulate the requirement to have the necessary set of operational and repair documentation for manufactured products already at the certification stage, which meets the interests of consumers and will contribute to improving the level of train safety. The company is working on the analysis of related technical regulations being developed and the elimination of identified collisions.

Interaction with suppliers will develop in terms of further implementation of the IRIS standard, the application of the UR-RAS standards in the organization of procurement activities, the creation of a system of technical audit of car repair enterprises of all forms of ownership in the countries of the Customs Union, and in a number of other areas.

The key task in the quality management unit of internal processes is the formation of the production system of JSC “Russian Railways”, which ensures an increase in the efficiency of operational activities and motivates employees to its continuous improvement. The implementation of lean manufacturing projects, the development of metrological support, the accreditation of the company’s testing centers in the accreditation system of Russia and individual ones in the Dakks system are aimed at this.

One of the key components of quality management of internal processes is a clear organization of metrological support. Currently, the reorganization of the metrological complex has been completed. On all railways there are metrology centers serving all structures of the holding.

1.5 Information technologies development in transportation process management

The introduction of process principles in the company requires a transition from the registration and analysis of individual events to the planning and control of operational work processes as a whole. The rationing of processes provided for during the modernization of the Automated Transportation Operational Management System makes it possible to prevent a violation of technology, and therefore, to build an accurate forecast of the execution of operations and plan optimal solutions for the performance of operational tasks by all performers in all areas of work with a minimum of costs.

The main feature of the new system is the presence of components that allow not only to algorithmize the execution of processes, but also to offer their optimal implementation in terms of minimizing the operating costs of transportation in general. For these purposes, it is planned to build a single database of all operational work resources, network bandwidth with the most detailed sections and their economic and technical characteristics, the possibility of combining adjacent sections for calculations, as well as reporting on any polygons. The automated transportation operational management system consolidates all information flows related to transportation management and is an integration platform for planning and managing processes, their operational control and reporting.

The modern means of development and operation of an Automated Control System, including open-source software, used in the modernization of an Automated Transportation Operational Management System, provide a significant increase in the performance and fault tolerance of the system, as well as reduce the cost of ownership and eliminate dependence on foreign suppliers. Thus, in addition to solving business problems, the architecture of the Automated Management System and its maintenance technology are simplified, equipment and license costs are reduced, and the groundwork for solving promising tasks is provided.

Due to the common methodological basis and a single base of normative and reference information, it was possible to ensure strict mutual alignment of various parameters and constraints of operational work – the throughput and carrying capacity of sections and stations, the cost of transportation, the duration and number of “windows”, the availability of traction rolling stock and crews, wagons, formation plan, etc. – and perform calculations both for the network as a whole and for any of its polygons with flexibly changing boundary conditions and optimization criteria.

Currently, the model calculates the optimal passage of car traffic at the specified values of transportation volumes, throughput and processing capacities and unit cost. The skipping of all correspondence specified by the plan is simulated, with the minimum cost of their transportation over the network. In the event of situations when car traffic exceeding its capacity is sent to the site, the model offers such options for bypassing bottlenecks that provide the minimum possible cumulative additional costs.

The analytical subsystem built into the model generates a wide range of reports, such as: bottlenecks; the cost of transportation; correspondence that the model recommends to skip in circles; correspondence that had to take several different routes. An independent evaluation of the effectiveness of the solution obtained using the model for the direction of car traffic, conducted by specialists of JSC NIIAS, showed that the total estimated savings in operating costs could amount to about 3 billion rubles per year under the current norms and schedule.

The model can be applied to solve a wide range of planning tasks, both long – term – capital investments, and short-term – for technological aspects of operational work. Examples of such tasks can be an assessment of the General Scheme, checking the feasibility of transportation plans under given infrastructure constraints, and tariff modeling.