Automated Real-time Dispatching Support

Dispatching work is always done under time pressure, often without leaving room for decision makers to fully study alternative solutions. Accurate knowledge about the state of a railroad operation, together with decision-support tools to help solving the problems that always occur during the day of operation, are key issues for timely providing transportation service to the public. Moreover, major disruptions may cause direct losses to the railroad operators of tens of millions of dollars. It is important to have systems for real-time dispatching with provisions to handle major disruptions, such as emergency scenarios definition and instantiation. This paper presents a real-time dispatching product developed by SISCOG in the past few years. The product enables real-time monitoring of what is happening during the operation and provides fast optimizers to handle operational disruptions. Scenario-based functionality to address large disruptions is under development. Systems based on this product are in use by several railroads.