14. Infrastructure/Train Borne Measurements in Support of UK Railway System Performance—Gaining Insight Through Systematic Analysis and Modelling

The British railway is one of the most complex mixed traffic railway systems in the world. Increasing passenger/freight traffic is placing significant demand on the railway system calling for improvements to the existing network capacity and service reliability. Through systematic data analysis and modelling, the industry has gained a better understanding and insight into the system behaviour. This has highlighted the necessity for higher precision measurements of the railway system to enable an effective optimisation of capacity utilisation and reliability of service performance. This chapter describes two main root causes affecting the service performance and the measurement systems used to quantify their impact. The current performance modelling techniques based on infrastructure-borne and train-borne measurement systems and their pros and cons will be discussed. Finally, opportunities will be presented to improve the performance monitoring and measurement systems by using the various data layers available to the industry in a better managed way.