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EU-Rail May 2026 Newsletter
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Enhancing Railway Disruption Management
Challenge
When train services are disrupted, whether due to operational issues or infrastructure failures, railway operators face significant challenges in maintaining punctual and reliable services. Managing alternative transport options, such as buses or taxis, is often a slow and manual process, where decisions are difficult to optimise and their impact hard to assess in real time. At the same time, infrastructure failures require rapid, well-informed responses to prevent wider network disruptions.
The solutions
Europe’s Rail (EU-Rail) has developed two demonstrations to manage disruptions more easily and effectively.
Collaborative Decision Support System for Efficient and Effective Disruption Management
The first demonstration reconstructs all the necessary operative steps the operator undergoes to handle an interruption without compromising infrastructure performance and railway traffic. The test focuses on an asset failure, using data from the failed asset and nearby ones. The Decision Support System (DSS) presents a list of actions to handle the selected event, without overwhelming the operator.
The operator can trigger the actions directly from the system and follow their evolution over time until the event handling is completed.
In addition, the interface (supports the operator in managing a large number of incoming events, identifying the most critical ones and supporting communication with all involved actors.
Readiness for Industrialisation and Deployment
What it does
The solution is based on DSS and HMI and is currently within TRL 4. Implementation was conducted in 2025 and the solution is being adopted within the FP1-MOTIONAL 2026 demonstration with representative data collected in the field during testing on a real rail infrastructure.
Maturity level
TRL 5/6
Expected benefits
- Automated and and reliable Interruption Management: The solution automates interruption management by ingesting real-time infrastructure and traffic measurements, generating guideline-compliant actions, and validating them against a digital twin before execution to reduce risk and improve technical reliability.
- Standardised and faster operational decision-making: Operationally, it standardises operator workflows, speeds up decision-making, and increases resilience through auditable recommendations and what-if simulations that help maintain performance and minimise service disruption.
- Improved efficiency and reduced costs: By preventing inefficient interventions and unnecessary slowdowns, it can lower energy use and wear, reduce delay-related costs, and improve overall network efficiency with measurable economic and environmental benefits.
Who benefits
Infrastructure managers
Railway operators
Real-Time Optimisation of Rail Disruption Management
The second demonstration is a Disruption Management module that automates the planning of alternative solutions, such as replacing trains with buses. By combining inputs such as available resources and operational plans, the system applies an algorithm to generate an optimised mitigation strategy. Each solution is evaluated against key performance indicators (KPIs), ensuring the best balance between efficiency, cost and passenger service. This solution is currently being tested in a demo environment using real data from railway service providers.
Did you know?
What it does
The Disruption Management tool not only supports mitigation through optimised scenario planning but also enables proactive resource planning for worst‑case situations.
Maturity level
TRL 7
Expected benefits
The system can accurately forecast how many buses or taxis are needed and create a realistic, optimised plan to get passengers to their destinations, even under tight resource constraints.
The result is faster decision-making, smarter use of resources, and a more reliable travel experience for passengers when disruptions occur.
Who benefits
Infrastructure managers
Railway Operators
Final users
Conclusion
The Collaborative DSS and the Disruption Management module developed by EU-Rail contribute to a more resilient, efficient and passenger-focused railway system, even under challenging conditions.
While the Disruption Management module optimises response strategies at network level, the collaborative DSS ensures that infrastructure failures are handled in a structured and operator-friendly way, guiding users with clear, data-driven actions.
Together, these solutions enhance the overall quality and speed of decision-making, reduce the impact of disruptions, and contribute to more reliable and robust railway operations.
Learn more about the project
FP1-MOTIONAL
The project FP1-MOTIONAL aims to improve planning and operational management of rail services and offers to meet the European goal of making rail the preferred mode of transport.