Political trends as well as general growth of the transport market set new challenges to railways and particularly to rail infrastructure managers. Rail infrastructure must become more efficient, which is to say that costs must be reduced and the use of capacity optimised, through better timetabling and network adjustments. But above all, rail infrastructure management should tackle strategic issues (on the long-term), hence the need for more adequate planning tools. Nowadays, infrastructure managers tend often to concentrate on operational and short-term problems ; meanwhile, reshaping rail networks requires several years of planning and implementation. In this context , the paper presents a methodology and the bases for the development of an effective decision support system to help infrastructure managers in setting up development strategies for rail corridors or networks. The methodology deals not only with the planning of investments in capacity (timetabling and timetable analyses), but takes also into account the impacts of timetable on the maintenance and renewal policies, in particular through the analysis of interactions between service deteriorations and track possessions. The methodology covers both the analysis of the availability and the reliability of capacity, and the maintainability of the infrastructure as well. The paper shows the importance of the long term planning of rail infrastructures and proposes a way of tackling both the analysis of capacity investments and the elaboration of maintenance and renewal policies. The presented approach is based on two existing software, CAPRES and FASTA, and on a third model, MRPOL, currently under development.

The CAPRES model (Railway Network Capacity Assessment System) has been built to help planners to design timetables at the network level and to saturate them, making possible through the process to evaluate the capacity of the network. The model has been developed by ITEP-EPFL in partnership with the Swiss Federal Railways. During the timetable saturation process, CAPRES takes into account infrastructure, rolling stock, and operations characteristics. It proceeds according to user-defined strategies that i n-volve train succession rules and priorities allocation, especially concerning the use of available capacity, for the various train categories. The construction of the saturated timetable is carried out through a set of events (train departures and arrivals) that are subjected to a number of constraints , such as running and stop times, connections, headway, and so on. The problem is solved by an optimised branch-and-bound algorithm. Major stations' operations are modelled by a specific track assignment algorithm with constrains between events. CAPRES has been used to analyse implementation alternatives for the North-South railway crossings through the Swiss Alps. Those applications have clearly showed the effect of integrating high-performance lines with the existing network. It has been possible to verify the feasibility of planned timetables, to pinpoint bottlenecks, and to assess effects on capacity of various infrastructure and service alternatives. As a result, the various scenarios for the development of services in the North-South rail corridor have been evaluated for the next 20 years. CAPRES methodology and results have been certified by the Swiss government and by the major Swiss railway companies. As a consequence, they have been instrumental in the political decision process that involves a 8.3 billion Euros investment for the AlpTransit project. The paper presents a flexible methodology to assess rail capacity over an entire network, as well as a case study concerning the analysis of the capacity development for the North-South freight corridor through Switzerland.

On the initiative of European Rail Research Institute and with the financial support of the UIC, European railway experts have pooled their knowledge and experience for the design and the development of a decision-support system for permanent way maintenance and renewal management. The final product, called ECOTRACK (ECOnomical TRACK), is available since March 1998. The originality of ECOTRACK is to provide planners and managers with a powerful tool for the purpose of minimising track life-cycle costs.