Operational Planning in the Railway Business

From Friday 20th November to Sunday 22nd November the Institution of Railway Operators will be holding the popular Operational Planning in the Railway Business short course.

This weekend course is suitable for both those who are relatively new to the subject or those who wish to further their career development and progress in this field.

The course will cover the principles involved in planning train services, and show how the role of the Operational Planner is crucial to business performance, by influencing revenue, costs and capital investment and forming the basis for many contractual relationships between companies. It will concentrate on:

The Network
Timetable Preparation
Resources Planning
Access Management and Capacity
Projects and Developments
Planning for Performance
The Customer Experience

The course is aimed at those who need to:

Understand the objectives of timetabling and the constraints within which timetabling operates
Understand how the timetable underpins a railway business by generating revenue and setting costs
Appreciate and employ a selection of standard timetable and resources planning techniques
Relate effectively with associated disciplines such as commercial management and project management

Contents include:

The nature of railways and the need for planning
The commercial specification – planning to meet it and improve on it
Track layouts and signalling – how do they affect the train service?
Planning Rules – what determines them and how are they used to build a timetable?
Timetable construction tools and techniques (train graph, platform occupation graph, tabular presentations)
Planning timescales (the permanent timetable, short-term planning, very long-term strategic planning)
Access planning and management
Generating revenue through timetable planning
Planning for performance
Costs of operations – fixed and variable, marginal and avoidable
The Operator’s role in business case appraisal and project development
Resources planning – rolling stock and crew diagrams, key issues in crew rostering
Capacity – what is it, where it comes from and where it goes

Course Fees
The cost for the course includes: course material, dinner on Saturday evening and lunch on both Saturday and Sunday. Please note that accommodation is not included in the price.

Members: £900 (incl.VAT) per person

Non-Members: £960 (incl. VAT) per person

We accept payment by invoice, bank transfer and card (card transactions will incur an extra 4% transaction fee)

To book a place please click here

Please note that as this programme is booked on a first come first served basis, we are not able to offer refunds or future credit for non-attendees. If you would like to be placed on a waiting list for short term cancellation, please contact us.