Rail service performance tipping points

If railway operators can avoid tipping points, then not only will service performance improve, but it will be easier to identify reliable solutions to poor performance. In partnership with Network Rail we used rail system modelling to identify the conditions that cause performance tipping points for Anglia rail services.   more...

Timetable tuning to improve performance

Small delays, or subthreshold delays as they are called in the rail industry, are the cause of many services arriving late at stations. Previous modelling for the Rail Safety and Standards Board with Greater Anglia showed that on time arrivals can reduce by up to 23% when services suffer from this type of subthreshold delay. This is a relatively large drop in performance, and the challenge for the rail industry is finding the cause of these delays and eliminating them to improve performance.  more...
Continuous improvement

Rail performance investigation tools

Risk Solutions brought together performance managers from five UK train operating companies to discuss the data and tools they use to investigate train service performance and identify ways to improve passenger journeys.  The aim of this research work, funded by City, University of London, was to identify strengths and weaknesses with the current analytical processes, […]  more...

HS2 running with existing rail services

Risk Solutions are using their SaviRPM rail performance modelling tool with West Coast Partnership Development to explore the potential performance impacts of HS2 on conventional rail, where the services share the same routes.  Modelling various carefully designed timetable options will demonstrate which approach best integrates the new high speed services with existing national and local […]  more...

Does social distancing impact rail performance?

New modelling work and research for RSSB have shown that although social distancing might increase dwell times, the overall performance impact is not significant nor widespread. As train operators welcome passengers back to the railway, the industry needed to understand the impact of increasing numbers and continued social distance to better manage network performance. Good […]  more...
Passenger Journey Performance

Rail performance modelling

Risk Solutions and City University of London have successfully delivered research for RSSB to explore knock-on train delays, partnering with Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway and Network Rail. The result is Savi, a Rail Performance Model with a set of powerful interactive visualisations of modelling results. Savi is now being used by train operators and Network Rail to explore the most effective ways to improve service performance and build more resilient timetables.  more...

Valuing FSA R&D Activity

The Food Standard Agency are an independent Government department working across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to protect public health and consumers' wider interests in food. Their aim is to use their expertise and influence so that people can trust that the food they buy and eat is safe and honest. This project, delivered by Risk Solutions with support from Live Economics and CECAN Ltd, is to develop a methodology that FSA can use to assess the business case, and make decisions, regarding funding of research and development projects, whose outcomes are often uncertain and long term.  more...

Water Abstraction Reform

Risk Solutions helped Defra design and test changes to the regime that govern how users can abstract water from rivers and ground water aquifers, in response to increasing pressures from demographic and climate change. We managed a multi-disciplinary team that engaged water users, environmental groups and regulators in the construction of an integrated water resource and economic behavioural model - using the technique of agent based modelling.  more...

Development of a Network Performance Model

The network performance model (NPM) was developed for Highways England by Risk Solutions. It is a software model that supports analysis of traffic performance on the strategic road network (SRN). It is used by the HA national intelligence unit (NIU) to support their analysis of network performance. Highways England uses this type of analysis to characterise the past performance of its roads, as well as to project scenarios about its expected future performance given various road investment strategies.  more...

Developing a Safety Risk Model

Risk Solutions has developed a comprehensive Safety Risk Model that analyses the risks to road users, road workers and Traffic Officers associated with the operation, maintenance and improvement of the Strategic Road Network (SRN) in England. The work involves sophisticated data analytics and visualisation of complex road safety risk.  more...