New solution for the railway access fees and haulage data in the SŽDC network

The railway access fees are supervised by “KAPO”

The state organisation of Railway Infrastructure Administration (Správa železniční dopravní cesty, SŽDC) and the company OLTIS Group a. s. signed an acceptance protocol on the information system KAPO. Its task is to calculate the railway access fees of the network of SŽDC as the infrastructure manager (IM). For SŽDC, deploying the system was a key prerequisite to ensure proper functioning of the liberalized railway transport market. The fees paid by the railway undertakings (RU) amount annually to around CZK 4.5 billion, and any mistake would mean either shortage in the revenues, or complains from the RUs.

Up to now, calculating and charging the railway access fees has been based on the system TP412, which has been dependent on so-called train haulage notices (entered manually), and which is obsolete by now. The new system of KAPO brings not only the elimination of these paper notices, but above all a significant improvement of the data quality. The data sources comprise the state-of-the art, network-wide information systems of the IM: ISOŘ KADR (selling the railway capacity and ordering train routes in “ad hoc” mode together with timetable design), ISOŘ CDS (central dispatching system, monitoring the real flow of the train traffic), and REVOZ (vehicle reference database). Anyway, improving of the quality and precision of the fee collection process and the resulting elimination of complaints is the ultimate goal of the KAPO solution. Another benefit is eliminating of all manual work, and generating of reliable, full-scope haulage reports (in train-km or gross tkm) in the railway network.

During the development of the KAPO system, the biggest effort was focused on the computational core of the system, including the data import from the source systems, data consistency checks, and full-scope algorithms for calculating the railway access fees in compliance with the relevant legislative and with the Network statement, including the approved declared prices and exceptions. A seemingly simple calculation requires solving many non-trivial problems, the most difficult of which is the correct matching of the ordered trains with the really executed trains (both automated and manual). The “offered prices” (formerly “discounts”) for the combined transport and SWL trains (Single Wagon Loads) proved also to be a challenge. The final output for the RUs comprises an invoice for accessing the railway network together with a delivery note, which contains a detailed breakdown of the total price down to the level of the individual trains.

Thanks to its professional experience in the area of transport and informatics, thanks to use of its own in-house application platform and the use of modern technologies, the development team has managed to accomplish the development work successfully within mere 9 months from the start of the contract. The team has therefore proven that even a demand of such a complex and highly demanding application is achievable. In addition to the development itself, the contract involves also operation of the system including a service desk.

On behalf of the project authors: Ing. Jiří Pavel, Ph.D., SŽDC and Ing. Mgr. David Krásenský, OLTIS Group a. s.