Integrating Optimization Metrics into Daily Practice – A Human-Centred Approach to Railway Planning Support

FP1-MOTIONAL was represented at the recent 2025 Transportation Research Symposium in Rotterdam by researchers Jonas Andersson and Sara Gestrelius from RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, on behalf of Trafikverket. The poster presented at this event provided an overview of solutions for advancing decision support for railway timetable planning through a human-centred design approach. The outcomes of this research address the challenge of using quality metrics and optimization algorithms in the practical timetable planning process through the development of conceptual prototypes tailored to the actual needs of practitioners..

To achieve these outcomes, the researchers used an iterative participatory design methodology, including interviews with long-term planners, capacity analysts, and national coordinators participating in the Swedish railway annual timetable development process, followed by a hierarchical task analysis to capture current work processes and challenges.

A key outcome of this research was the identification and operationalization of four central quality metrics—robustness, conflicts, theoretical feasibility, and application fulfilment—mapped directly to specific planning tasks. These were embedded into visual decision support tools, including planning progress and an overview of timetable quality across geographic and temporal dimensions, supporting targeted problem-solving.

The tools were refined over successive design iterations, moving from hand-drawn sketches to interactive digital prototypes. Feedback from practitioners indicated that the visualizations has potential to improve planning decision transparency, support communication with external stakeholders such as train operators, and facilitate knowledge transfer within planning teams.

Overall, the research highlights the importance of aligning technical decision-support tools with the real-world contexts of their intended users. By embedding the development in actual work practices, the work performed in FP1-MOTIONAL (Work Packages  6 and 7) contributes to a more effective and user-friendly integration of optimization and quality metrics in railway capacity planning.