Disturbances in the railway network are frequent and to some extent, inevitable. When this happens, the traffic dispatchers need to re-schedule the train traffic and there is a need for decision support in this process. One purpose of such a decision support system would be to visualize the relevant, alternative re-scheduling solutions and benchmark them based on a set of relevant train traffic attributes which quantify the effects of each solution. Currently, there are two research projects financed by the Swedish Transport Administration (i.e. Trafikverket) which focus on developing decision support to assist the Swedish train traffic managers: The STEG project and the EOT project. Within the STEG project, researchers at Uppsala University in co-operation with Trafikverket are developing a graphical user interface (referred to as the STEG graph). Within the EOT project, researchers at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) are developing fast re-scheduling algorithms to propose to the Swedish train traffic dispatchers a set of relevant re-scheduling alternatives when disturbances occur. However, neither the STEG graph nor the EOT algorithms are at this point designed to evaluate, benchmark and visualize the alternative re-scheduling solutions. The main objective of this work is therefore to identify and analyze different train traffic attributes and how to use the selected relevant ones for benchmarking re-scheduling solutions. This involves enhancing an existing visual tool (EOT GUI) and using this extended version (referred to as the EOT GUI+) to demonstrate and evaluate the benchmarking of different re-scheduling solutions based on the selected train traffic attributes. The train traffic attributes found in the literature (foremost research publications and documents by Trafikverket) were collected and analyzed. A subset of the most commonly used attributes found were then selected and their applicability in benchmarking re-scheduling solutions for the Swedish train traffic system was further analyzed. The formulas for calculating each of the attribute values were either found in the literature and possibly modified, or defined within this thesis project. In order to assess the use of the attributes for benchmark solutions, experiments were conducted using the enhanced visual tool EOT GUI+ and a set of sample solutions for three different disturbance scenarios provided by the EOT project. The tool only performs a benchmark of two solutions at a time (i.e. a pair wise benchmark) and computes the attribute values for the chosen attributes. The literature review and attribute analysis resulted in a first set of ten different attributes to use including e.g. total final delay (with a delay threshold value of 1 and 5 minutes respectively), maximum delay, total accumulated delay, total delay cost, number of delayed trains and robustness. The formulas to compute these attribute values were implemented and applied to the sample solutions in the experiments. The first phase of the experiments showed that in one of the disturbance scenarios, some of the attribute values were in conflict and that none of re-scheduling solution was dominating the others. This observation led to that the set of attributes needed to be narrowed down and internally prioritized. Based on the experimental results and the analysis of what the research community and the main stakeholder (i.e. Trafikverket) consider are the most important attributes in this context, the final set of attributes to use includes average final delay, maximum delay of a single train, total number of delayed trains and robustness. The contribution of this thesis is primarily the review and analysis of what attributes to use when performing a benchmark of re-scheduling solutions in real-time train traffic disturbance management. Furthermore, this thesis also contributes by performing an experimental assessment of how the attributes and their formulas could work in a pair-wise, quantitative benchmark for a set of disturbance scenarios and which issues that may occur due to conflicting objectives and attribute values. Concerning the enhancement of the visual tool and the visualization of the re-scheduling solutions, the experimental evaluation and analysis shows that the tool would not fit directly to the needs of the train dispatchers. This work should therefore only be seen as a starting point for the researchers whom are working with the development of decision support systems in this context. Furthermore, several iterative experiments have been conducted to select the appropriate attributes for benchmarking solutions and suggesting the best re-scheduling solution. During the experiments, we have used a limited set of different problem instances (2+2+7) representing three different types of disturbances. The performance of the enhanced visual tool EOT GUI+ and its functionalities should ideally also be analyzed further and improved by experimenting with a larger number of instances, for other parts of the Swedish railway network and in co-operation with the real users, i.e. the dispatchers.

The punctuality of rail traffic in Sweden has not increased in a long period of time and this causes problems for people, companies and the community as it affects everyone in different ways. How the Swedish Transport Administration and SJ work on improving the train traffic and punctuality will be addressed in this study. This study will have focus on how data-driven methods can increase the punctuality of train traffic. The study will show which factors are critical for data-driven methods using literature as well as models with descriptions, as a result, the Swedish Transport Administration and SJ will be in focus for how the development of punctuality of train traffic goes. This is a case study with a literature search as well as qualitative interviews as data collection, the literature search will primarily show which factors are necessary for datadriven methods and it will also help form the interview questions, later on the interviews will show how the Swedish Transport Administration and SJ work today so that comparisons can be drawn and a result can be produced.

Railway transportation has great potential, but interdependencies in the railway traffic make trains very sensitive to disturbances, which can bedifficult to handle. Using railway in an intermodal transport chain may complicate the interconnections with other modes if there is large uncertainty in the performance of the railway. A study based on interviews with several customers of the Swedish National Railway Administration shows that the customers lack information regarding occurrences of disturbances and the consequences for their trains, i.e. the new estimated time of arrival. This information is necessary when taking actions within the customers’ organisation to minimise the negative impacts. Predicting the consequences of a disturbance and the effects of counter measures taken by the Swedish train traffic managers is today an overwhelming task considering there is no computational decision support available. However, provided that the traffic and decision-making could be simulated, the effects from disturbances and actions taken could be computed. Requirements regarding computational time for a simulation are obviously significant and affect the usefulness in a real-time environment. For strategic purposes, a simulator could also serve as an analytical tool for evaluating strategies for handling certain types of disturbances. An approach to model the different layers of such a simulator, taken into account the infrastructure, the traffic flow and the influence of the traffic management decisions and transport operators, is presented. The part that covers the interaction between train traffic and infrastructure has been implemented as a small-scale discrete-event simulator. The simulator is extended by an optimisation approach, attempting to act as decision support for the train traffic managers when handling disturbances by generating effective counter measures. It is composed by a linear model specifying the timetable of a sub-network and solved by optimisation software. Iteratively, a heuristic is applied to modify the timetable by changing meets and overtakes and generate a new updated linear model to be solved. In addition to consider the train traffic system as an explicit part of a transport chain, it can be seen as a black box where some relations between input and output are known. We have investigated how uncertainty in the reliability related to one or several transport links can be handled when combining several links into a transport chain. A simulation-based approach is proposed.

Sveriges järnvägsnät utgör en viktig del i landets infrastruktur och transporterar både människor och stora mängder gods. Järnvägsnätet är dock störningskänsligt och då stora delar av infrastrukturen är enkelspårig blir alla fordon som trafikerar samma linje beroende av varandra och en försening på ett tåg resulterar ofta i följdförseningar till övriga tåg på samma linje. Idag sker uppföljning av förseningsorsaker manuellt och ofta lång tid efter att det hänt vilket resulterar i osäkra och opålitliga data. Målet med detta projekt är att utveckla en prototyp för ett rapporteringssystem som skulle kunna implementeras i Sveriges järnvägsnät för att möjliggöra realtidsuppföljning på förseningar som uppstår. Förutom att rapporteringen ska ske i realtid ska även användaren direkt notifieras när en försening uppstår och på så sätt inte själv behöva ha koll på det. Resultatet av projektet var en prototyp som i realtid upptäcker förseningar och då notifierar den berörda användaren om att en försening uppstått, vid vilken station det skett och förseningens omfattning i antal minuter. Användaren har då möjlighet att rapportera orsak till förseningen. Prototypen upptäcker även följdförseningar. / The Swedish rail network constitutes an important part of its infrastructure and transports both people and large quantities of goods. Unfortunately, the rail network is susceptible to disruptions since a large amount of the rail network consists of one-track sections. Trains that traffic these sections are dependent on each other. One delay may result in subsequent delays for other trains. The follow-up of causes of delays is today done manually and often weeks after it occurred which may results in uncertain and unreliable data. The goal of the project is to develop a prototype of a reporting system which could be implemented into the Swedish railway network to enable real time monitoring of delays that occurs. The prototype should notify the user when a new delay has occurred. The result of the project was a prototype which in real time detects delays and notifies the affected users that a delay has occurred, at which station it happened and the extent of the delay is presented in minutes. The user then has an opportunity to report cause of delay. The prototype also detects subsequent delays.

When booking a trip along the railway through several train operators it is not uncommon that information about possible disruptions along the railway (that can change or cancel the booked trip) are not relayed to the passengers. Today, research on rail traffic in Sweden is limited. It is unclear how satisfied customers are with the quality of the information they receive during their trip (if they get it at all), including with respect to disruptions. Our partners have identified what they believe is a need among train operators, which is a service for disruption information to travelers. In addition to confirming that there is a need for such a service, we have an interest to investigate how such a service might look like and what the users want. Our research has shown that passengers are not satisfied with either the amount of information about disturbances or how often they get it. Along with KnowitBorlänge, we have come up with a proposed solution that uses already existing technologies to create a portal for an efficient way to get the interference information to travelers. / Vid bokandet av en resa längs med järnvägen via flera tågbolag så finns (i dagens läge) inte alltid information kring eventuella störningar längs med järnvägen som kan förändra eller ställa in den bokade resan. I dag är forskning kring bantrafiken i Sverige begränsad. Det är oklart hur nöjda resenärer är med kvalitén på den information de får kring sin resa (om de får den överhuvudtaget), bland annat med avseende på störningar. Vår samarbetspartner har identifierat vad de tror är ett behov hos tågbolag, vilket är en tjänst för information om tågtrafiken för resenärer. Utöver att bekräfta att det här behovet finns har vi även ett intresse att undersöka hur en sådan här tjänst skulle kunna se ut och vad användarna vill ha. Vår forskning har visat att resenärerna inte är nöjda med varken mängden information om störningar eller hur ofta de får den. Tillsammans med Knowit Borlänge har vi kommit fram till ett lösningsförslag som använder befintliga tekniker för att skapa en portal som på ett effektivt sätt levererar störningsinformation till resenärer.

Train traffic control is a complex task in a dynamic environment. Different actors have to cooperate to meet strong requirements regarding safety, punctuality, capacity utilization, energy consumption, and more. The GMOC model has been developed and utilized in a number of studies in several different areas. This thesis describes GMOC and uses train traffic control as the application area for evaluating its utility. The GMOC model has its origin in control theory and relates to concepts of dynamic decision making. Human operators in complex, dynamic control environments must have clear goals, reflecting states to reach or to keep a system in. Mental models contain the operator’s knowledge about the task, the process, and the control environment. Systems have to provide observability, means for the operator to observe the system’s states and dynamics, and controllability, allowing the operators to influence the system’s states. GMOC allows us to constructively describe complex environments, focusing on all relevant parts. It can be utilized in user-centred system design to analyse existing systems, and design and evaluate future control systems. Our application of GMOC shows that automation providing clear observability and sufficient controllability is seen as transparent and most helpful. GMOC also helps us to argue for visualization that rather displays the whole complexity of a process than tries to hide it. Our studies in train traffic control show that GMOC is useful to analyse complex work situations. We identified the need to introduce a new control strategy improving the traffic plan by supporting planning ahead. Using GMOC, we designed STEG, an interface implementing this strategy. Improvements that have been done to observability helped the operators to develop more adequate mental models, reducing use of cognitive capacity but increasing precision of the operative traffic plans. In order to improve the traffic controllers’ controllability, one needs to introduce and share a real-time traffic plan, and provide the train drivers with up-to-date information on the surrounding traffic. Our studies indicate that driver advisory systems, including such information, reduce the need for traffic re-planning, improve energy consumption, and increase quality and capacity of train traffic. / KAJT / FTTS

Ever wondered how trains arrive and depart on time? Traffic Control systems are there to help control the traffic flow, with many operators monitoring and taking actions when necessary. Operators of the traffic control systems use a keyboard and a mouse to interact. Current user interface and work setup consist of many usability issues that can be improved in order to increase operator’s efficiency and productivity in controlling the traffic. Interviewing users of the system and researching on related topics led to a newly proposed design in interaction, user interface as well as some suggestions for increasing productivity. Gesture-based interaction is introduced and simulated for traffic control systems that tend to improve the operation. Various gestures are designed such as panning, zooming and hovering the map using Leap Motion controller which enables intuitive interaction. These gestures aim to solve identified usability issues discovered during the interview with the user. The project aims to answer the following question: Can gesture-based interaction solve usability issues and establish the intuitive use of the CTC system? Performing exploratory research on this topic involved designing, implementing and testing hand gestures with users. From an ergonomic perspective, body posture and hand position of the operator is examined and suggested to use sit-to-stand workstations in order to reduce pain and discomfort while working. Gesture-based interaction eliminates finding mouse cursor on large screens, it enables fast request of detailed information and also it provides a better overview of the map surroundings. Laboratory tests confirm that gesture-based interaction brings more natural and intuitive use of traffic control systems. There is a big potential for gesture-based interaction to increase usability and bring efficient controlling for operators. It would reduce delays of the train and maintain safe traffic flow. / Har du någonsin undrat hur tåg anländer och avgaå i tid? Trafikledningssystem (CTC-system) hjälper till att kontrollera trafikflöet där operatörer övervakar och vidtar åtgärder vid behov. Operatörer av ett trafikledningssystem använder idag ett tangentbord och en mus för att interagera. Det nuvarande användargränssnittet och arbetsinstallationen består av många användbarhetsproblem som kan förbättras för att öka operatörens effektivitet och produktivitet för att kontrollera trafiken. Intervjuer med användare av systemet samt forskning om ämnet ledde till ett nytt föreslag av interaktion, utformning av användargränssnitt samt några förslag för att öka produktiviteten. Den gestbaserade interaktionen som infördes och simulerades för trafikkontrollsystemet tenderar att förbättra funktionen. Olika gester utformades som möjliggör för användaren att panorera, zooma och sväva över kartan. Gesterna implementerades med hjälp av Leap Motion Controller som möjliggör intuitiv interaktion. Dessa gester syftar till att lösa identifierade användbarhetsproblem som upptäcks under intervjuerna med användarna. Syftet med detta arbete var att svara på följande forskningsfråga: Kan gestbaserad interaktion lösa användbarhetsproblem och etablera intuitiv användning av CTC-systemet? Den explorativa forskning som utfördes i detta arbete inkluderade att utforma, genomföra och testa gester med användare. Kroppshållning och handposition för operatorerna undersöktes ur ett ergonomiskt perspektiv och studien föreslår att använda sitt-till-stå arbetsstationer för att minska smärta och obehag under arbetet. Gestbaserad interaktion eliminerar problemet att hitta muspekaren på stora skärmar, vilket gör det enkelt att snabbt hitta detaljerad information och ger även en bättre överblick över kartans omgivning. Laboratorietester bekräftar att gestbaserad interaktion ger mer naturlig och intuitiv användning av trafikledningssystemet. Det finns en stor potential för gestbaserad interaktion för att öka användbarheten och ge en effektiv kontroll för operatörerna. Det skulle minska förseningarna av tåget och upprätthålla ett säkert trafikflöde.