Reksoft and Qnamic streamline Swiss railway schedule effectiveness

Reksoft, a leading Eastern-European software development outsourcing provider, announced that it has successfully completed a software schedule module for Swiss Railways, as a subcontractor for Qnamic.

The Swiss are the world's keenest train users, each traveling on average more than 2,000 km by rail annually. To cope with this demand, half-hourly service recently replaced hourly service between the country's main cities. Optimal efficiency depends on train operators' knowledge of rail routes. Until recently, this entailed reference to two paper documents: a 470-page reference manual covering all rail infrastructure, including stations, signals, sections and appropriate train speeds; and a rail timetable, updated daily, with station codes. With the format and structure of information differing between the reference guide and the timetable, however, constantly switching between the two was an awkward and distracting process for train operators working in such a pressurised environment.
The paper reference manual and timetable needed to be replaced with a single electronic document, printable in a specific, convenient format, which train operators would find easy to use, and which could be accessed using any browser.
Qnamic, a Swiss company specialising in the development of planning and production software solutions for railways, performed analysis of Swiss railways business needs and developed a new product concept of software schedule module.
Qnamic chose Reksoft as a partner for outsourcing development and support of such a solution based on the Russian company's expertise in product software engineering.
Under the guidance of Qnamic, Reksoft developed a multi-component web-based application gathering all the necessary data from various extant IT systems. Formatted and displayed on an in-cab laptop, this provides train operators with access to any changes in schedule and infrastructure. If necessary, the application even enables the operator to route a new track instead of a closed one. As a result, the implementation of the new system has reduced bureaucracy and increased flexibility - when unplanned scheduling changes are made, the update can be loaded at any time via internet at the railway station.
The new application offers drivers the convenience of an in-cab office. This saves paper and time, as well as reducing the potential for error through direct communication. The system also ensures high transparency and simplifies accounting.
Localisation mechanisms help to introduce different language user interfaces for countries where several languages are spoken. Today, the software is used by one of the rail operators in Switzerland. Negotiations are being held regarding system set-up in other countries.
Currently, the schedule is updated several times a day via an intranet, and Qnamic and Reksoft are working on on-line access to the system for every train operator.
Nik Brajkovic, a lead software engineer at Qnamic, expressed his admiration for the quality of cooperation with Reksoft: 'We were delighted with the quality of the development work as well as the general work ethic concerning punctuality and reliability shown by Reksoft,' he said. 'We are looking forward to further successful projects with them.'