PCS/PATHFINDER News

New procedure regarding the path request deadline in April 2011

As in previous years all dossiers in the harmonisation phase, where all applicants (path-related) lights are on green, will be switched automatically to the path request phase at 23:00 h on 11th April 2011. In order to simplify the workload for the RUs, the system will also switch all dossiers with green lights at 03:00 h on Monday morning. The leading RUs have the whole Monday to focus on the remaining open dossiers.

In addition, dossiers which had been “forgotten” in the path consulting conference phase will be transferred to harmonisation at 04:00 h on Monday morning (note: for dossiers that have already “acknowledged” the Feasibility Study result only). With this approach, the leading RUs will be able to check the dossiers once more in the harmonisation phase for the path request, and the dossiers will be considered on automatic promotion at 23:00 h on the same day. Dossiers that have just started the path consulting conference will be kept in path consulting conference.


New functions

Abandonment of the matrix card
Since the launch of PATHFINDER in 2004, a matrix card and the appropriate codes have been needed to log into the system.
The PATHFINDER system is currently monitored 24/7 and communicates via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) together with password-protected access. These conditions correspond to the standard security requirements for today’s web applications. Therefore, the matrix card authentication is obsolete.

Catalogue Paths
Frequent PATHFINDER user may have noticed that there is a new tab called «Path catalogues». The new function will display available catalogue paths on RNE Corridors. In order to test this function, catalogue paths for the timetable 2012 on the two RNE Corridors C01 (Oslo/Turku – Malmö – Padborg/Rostock – Hamburg) and C10 (Hamburg – Dresden – Prag – Bratislava – Budapest) have been introduced. These paths can be used by all interested Railway Undertakings which operate internationally along these two corridors. Detailed path offers are given for all corridor sections – helping to speed up the process of submitting international path requests via PATHFINDER. Within the PATHFINDER system, the data can be directly imported into new or existing dossiers for the upcoming annual timetable 2012.

Reporting System
Another new function that has been implemented in the last weeks concerns the reporting system. Until now a lot of time was needed by users in each company to report on dossiers, i.e. to control dossiers’ content and changes within the timetabling process or to refer to management on the amount and status of path requests in PATHFINDER. Until Version 2.2.5, this operation was made by opening dossiers on screen or by saving them as PDF and then taking notes manually concerning the user’s customised report. Since Version 2.2.6, a new automated reporting system can be used as a new standard for communication between all involved parties. The system can be used in the preparation phases as well as at international meetings, instead of the current possibilities. This way, time savings will be possible.

RNE has invested much time to make this system available before the main European meetings, during which RUs will plan the 2012 international timetable. In the near future, some further features will be available, according to a development plan and to user feedback.

At this stage, it is strongly advised to use the “Dossier organiser” report at “Path request page” for checking harmonisation results before path requests are sent by the April deadline. This Excel page can be shared by users in order to understand and discuss missing values, border constraints, unclear situations, etc. Before the Orange Book is updated, please refer to here, for a first reference in the user guide.


Next important PATHFINDER deadlines

Overview of the next important PATHFINDER milestones:

Date:	Action:	Responsibility of:
11.04.2011 - 23:59 h (CET)	Deadline for submission of path requests   for Timetable 2012	RU
12.04.2011	First day for placing late path requests for   Timetable 2012	RU
04.07.2011	Publication of International Draft Timetable	IM
04.07.2011	Beginning of the consultation phase for applicants	RU

PATHFINDER statistics


There is still a strong increase in the use of PATHFINDER. Many thanks for your contribution to this success!


PATHFINDER Days

The 2nd PATHFINDER Days, which took place in Vienna on 22 and 23 November 2010, attracted 90 participants including experienced and new railway business specialists as well as IT specialists from Railway Undertakings and Infrastructure Managers/Allocation Bodies.

The event offered the participants an opportunity to exchange information with active and experienced PATHFINDER users and experts. The following issues were on the agenda:

• Information update about the latest PATHFINDER developments
• Presentations and “hands-on” workshop about the PATHFINDER Integration Platform
• Case studies: PATHFINDER day-to-day business examples by experienced PATHFINDER users

The case studies, where participants played the roles of various RUs and IMs/ABs involved in a single path request dossier, gave an understanding of the process workflow and illustrated the benefits to newcomers in the PATHFINDER community.

The event was a great success and was highly appreciated by this years' participants. The 3rd edition of the PATHFINDER Days is already scheduled for November 2011.


Development of PATHFINDER

PATHFINDER will be the right tool ...
... to meet TAF-TSI requirements

• short-term path request processes (2011)
• message format and structure (2011)

... to comply with the new EU Regulation for a European rail network for competitive freight

• pre-arranged paths (2013)
• allocation function (2013)
• path register function (2013)

... and to ensure the availability of new products (e.g. Click&Ride).


PATHFINDER Guidelines

RNE has published new Guidelines for the use of PATHFINDER for the running timetable 2011 and the annual timetable 2012

PATHFINDER is a web application provided by RNE to Infrastructure Managers (IMs), Allocation Bodies (ABs) and Path Applicants that handles the communication and co-ordination processes for international path requests and path offers.

In order to facilitate the use of PATHFINDER, RNE provides PATHFINDER process guidelines that clearly define roles and responsibilities and assist the path applicants with preparing their path requests for the running timetable 2011 and the annual timetable 2012. These guidelines are in line with the internationally-agreed timetabling deadlines. The guidelines can be downloaded here.

For further details, please contact our Pathfinder Support Desk

For those customers who do not yet use PATHFINDER, RNE  provides a paper form enabling them to request international paths. Naturally, all RNE Members are always ready to assist their customers with the ordering process.


PATHFINDER Days (announcement)

We are pleased to announce the 2^nd edition of the PATHFINDER Days, which will take place in Vienna on 22 & 23 November 2010. This event is intended to give the participants an opportunity to exchange information with active and experienced PATHFINDER users and experts. Attendance at this event will strongly enhance the skills of PATHFINDER users.

The PATHFINDER days will comprise the following activities and schoolings:

• information update about the latest PATHFINDER developments
• networking dinner for the PATHFINDER community
• presentations and “hands-on” workshop about the PATHFINDER Integration Platform
• case studies: PATHFINDER day-to-day business examples by experienced PATHFINDER users

For your personal invitation and registration form please click here. The registration deadline is 12th November 2010.


New PATHFINDER Release with new function

RNE will release a new PATHFINDER version on 10 November 2010. Based on the positive feedback of the users with the current version, the general structure and the workflow will stay more or less the same.

There will only be a few changes:

• warning text for RUs in case of “Unknown Agency”, if location/stop has not been attributed to an RU

• on the 2^nd Monday in April, there will be two automatic switches of dossiers:
  - at 03:00 h (CET) for all dossiers with all RU lights on green
  - at 23:00 h (CET) for the remaining dossiers with all RU lights on green (status quo)
  The new switch at 03:00 h will result in the fact that the (leading) RUs will have fewer dossiers and therefore may focus on the treatment of the remaining dossiers on the last day for placing initial path requests for the timetable 2012.

• if a dossier is submitted to the Coordinating IM/AB, the other involved IMs/ABs have already access to the dossier (read-only)
• path construction: revision of the function for copying the whole timetable or just a national section of the RU request or the IM/AB study result
• various improvements to usability

Tips and tricks
This time: opening of a dossier

After the launch of the new release at the beginning of November, several RUs will start with the preparation of new dossiers for the next annual timetable (TT 2012). There are several ways to open a new dossier.

We will outline the two which are most frequently used:

• go to the INBOX and at the bottom of this page, click on “Open new dossier” or,
• open an existing dossier in the “Details” view, scroll down to the “Control” chapter. Click here on the button “Copy the dossier”, then make your choice in the tooltip regarding train composition and timetable copying and finalise this activity by clicking on “copy”. A new dossier with the parameters of the old dossier will be created. This approach makes sense if the train is already running.

New feature under preparation: Reporting System

The increased number of dossiers, and the growing use of Pathfinder for all phases of the timetabling process, have strengthened the need to make Pathfinder even faster and easier to use.

Therefore, RNE is currently developing a system that should enable the following functions:

• register functions – for officially stating and easily finding which step of the allocation process dossiers have reached
• data organising functions – for easier and faster collection of the contents of several dossiers into one report
• statistical functions – enabling users and administrators to carry out analysis by themselves

Details on this new feature will be published in the next edition of the Pathfinder User News.


Next important PATHFINDER deadlines

Overview of the next important PATHFINDER milestones:

Date:	Action:	Responsibility of:
17.01.2011	Deadline for placing feasibility studies   in PATHFINDER for Timetable 2012	RU
14.03.2011	Deadline for answering path feasibility requests	IM
11.04.2011 - 23:59 h (CET)	Deadline for submission of path requests   for Timetable 2012	RU
12.04.2011	First day for placing Late path requests for   Timetable 2012	IM

PATHFINDER statistics

Use of the tool (number of dossiers; status 30.9.2010)

Year	Timetable period	Passenger RUs	Freight RUs
2007	Annual Timetable 2008 (placed before 2nd Monday in April)	584	29
2008	Annual Timetable 2009	959	73
2009	Annual Timetable 2010     Late path requests for Timetable 2010	1168 0	99 5
2010	Annual Timetable 2011 Late path requests for Timetable 2011 Ad-hoc requests for Timetable 2010	1493 211 15	106 100 25

There is a strong increase in the use of PATHFINDER. Many thanks for your contribution to this success!


Pathfinder supports automatic e-mailing notifications

Since June 2010, the Pathfinder system supports automatic e-mail notifications to users regarding changes in their dossiers. All users are kindly asked to check their user profile in the Pathfinder system (please click on the link with the login name), and ensure that the e-mail address which is configured in the system is still valid.

User notifications from the Pathfinder system contain important information such as: the latest changes in the dossiers in which the user was involved, and messages that other users might write directly within the system.


24/7 Pathfinder Support currently under testing

To enhance helpdesk support for Pathfinder, RNE is currently testing 24/7 e-mail support. Tickets sent by e-mail in English are registered and processed on a 24/7 basis (24 hours/day, 7 days/week), with a guaranteed response time of 4 hours. First test results are promising and the support testing will be continued until June 2010. Telephone support is offered during office hours from 09:00 to 16:00 with enhanced reaction time for request handling. After a successful test period, RNE will continue to offer 24/7 support for Pathfinder permanently. The new e-mail address for Pathfinder support is: support.pathfinder@railneteurope.info .


Pathfinder Days Roundup

The first Pathfinder Days were successfully held on 1^st & 2^nd December 2009 in Vienna. This new, annual event is intended to give you an opportunity to exchange information with active and experienced Pathfinder users and experts. Attendance at this event will strongly enhance your experience with Pathfinder and place your needs at the centre of our attention.

The first Pathfinder Days comprised the following activities and trainings:

• Information update on newest Pathfinder developments
• “Train-The-Trainer” certifications
• Networking dinner for the Pathfinder community
• Presentations and ‘hands-on’ workshop about the Pathfinder Integration Platform, including contributions by developers of Pathfinder and of the national systems (including the interface with Pathfinder) of Railway Undertakings and Infrastructure Managers
• Case studies: Pathfinder daily business examples by experienced Pathfinder users including special guest presentations:
  • Mr Reiner Wilke (DB Schenker/TAF-TSI): ‘Implementation Structure of TAF TSI: Deployment of Pathfinder for short term path request at DB Schenker Rail’
  • Mr Reimer Wolff (DB Netze): ‘Feasibility Study Process in Harmonisation’

To download presentations held at the Pathfinder Days, please follow this link to the download area.
As in December 2009, this event will be organized by RailNetEurope will be held in Vienna on 22-23 November 2010 . The call for registration will be sent by RNE in September 2010.

New Pathfinder Release

Experiences with the new release
The current version of Pathfinder has now been in use for 4 months. As the figures in the next section show, the new version of Pathfinder is being actively used for the preparation of the next timetable (2011). The inclusion of the feasibility study into the workflow was implemented and accepted without any difficulty. Since the last release, it is also possible to place ad-hoc path requests for the running timetable in Pathfinder. This possibility has been repeatedly used by the RUs. The Pathfinder process guidelines as well as supporting documents produced by Forum Train Europe (FTE) for their member RUs helped the user to get acquainted with revised workflows and functions.

Figures – dossiers for 2011
Within the last weeks, 23 RUs have created 1300 dossiers in their function as leading applicant for the preparation of the timetable 2011. In comparison with last year, this is an increase of over 10%. Most of these dossiers (1150) have been forwarded to the IMs/ABs for feasibility studies.

User feedback
The newest release of Pathfinder has brought some changes, e.g. a revised workflow for path study requests. (Experienced) Pathfinder users on both sides (Railway Undertakings & Infrastructure Managers/Allocation Bodies) were faced with several functional and visual changes. Even though we have tested the new version intensively, we are aware that there might still be some bugs or other issues. If you have noticed anything, please let us know (support.pathfinder@railneteurope.info). Your feedback will help us in the further development of the system. Many thanks for your support!


12 April 2010: deadline for placing path requests for the annual timetable 2011

As in previous years, the deadline for the submission of initial path requests for the next annual timetable (2011) is on the 2nd Monday in April. On 12 April 2010, at 23:00 h (CET), all Pathfinder dossiers in the Harmonisation Phase with all applicants (path-related) lights on green will be switched automatically to the Path Request Phase. The leading applicant must ensure that all participants agree with the request. This process is controlled by making sure that all ‘lights’ are green. Unless all lights are green it will not be possible to switch the path request automatically to the next stage.

Of course it is also possible to place path requests for the annual timetable 2011 after this deadline. All dossiers submitted after 12 April 2010 will be treated by the Infrastructure Managers/Allocation Bodies as late path requests. The Pathfinder system will check regularly (every night) after the 2nd Monday in April the status of the acceptance indicators of the dossiers and will automatically transfer those dossiers where all applicants’ lights are on green at 23:00 h to late path request. Allocation for these ‘Late path requests’ will be in the order in which requests were made, but they will have a lower priority than initial path requests that were made on time.


Pathfinder Training:

Pathfinder training facilities have been significantly improved in the previous year thanks to the introduction of the Pathfinder eLearning platform. Not only does the new Pathfinder eLearning system provide the Pathfinder users with a detailed explanation of each feature of Pathfinder, but it also makes it possible to test the user’s knowledge of the Pathfinder system directly. We kindly ask our users to use the testing feature in Pathfinder eLearning and to notify us (via RNE Pathfinder Support) so that we can check the results accordingly and provide any additional explanations that may be needed.

The eLearning platform serves as an add-on to the certification training for Pathfinder which, this year, will be held in Vienna on 22-23 November 2010 during the ‘Pathfinder Days’ event. As in December 2009, this event will be organized by RailNetEurope. The call for registration – both for this event and for the Pathfinder certification training – will be sent by RNE in September 2010.

New Pathfinder Orange Book:
A new version of the Pathfinder Orange Book has been published by RNE. The latest version can be downloaded here.

Welcome to Pathfinder - presenting new RUs & IMs

The Pathfinder user family is still growing. We are happy to welcome the following companies: Arenaways (Italy), Euro Cargo Rail (France), LOKOMOTION (Germany), Osenet (Greece), Rail Traction Company (Italy), TP Ferro (France/Spain), VR-Group (Finland)


European use of Pathfinder mapped

The map below shows the number of RUs using Pathfinder in RNE member countries. Not all RUs have been included in the illustration, but the table below provides an overview of all RU#s using Pathfinder, both for passenger and freight traffic.

		Cargo Users		Passenger Users				Cargo Users		Passenger Users
Austria		7		4		Luxembourg		1		1
Belarus		1		1		Macedonia		1		1
Belgium		2		2		Monaco		0		1
Bosnia Herzegovina		2		2		Netherlands		6		4
Bulgaria		1		1		Norway		1		1
Croatia		1		1		Poland		7		3
Czech Republic		7		2		Portugal		1		1
Denmark		1		2		Romania		1		1
Estonia		1		1		Russia		0		1
Finland		0		4		Serbia		1		2
France		2		3		Slovakia		6		5
Germany		7		4		Slovenia		1		1
Greece		1		2		Spain		1		2
Hungary		4		4		Sweden		2		1
Italy		6		5		Switzerland		5		3
Latvia		0		1		Turkey		1		1
Lithuania		0		1		United Kingdom		1		2
						Ukraine		0		1

Status March 2010