As part of our Institute Internship: Railway Engineering we visited the Rurtalbahn in Düren on May 28, 2025. The trip to the construction site in Zülpich took place on a new hydrogen bus. Many thanks to the Rurtalbahn employees who made this visit possible.

Mrs. Wiebke Lenze passed her doctoral examination on Mai 26th, 2024. The title of her dissertation is: "Determination and Improvement of Quality in Rail Operations". The Institute of Transport Science congratulates quite cordially!

We are pleased to present the latest research by Tamme Emunds and Nils Nießen: "Utilizing phase-type distributions for queueing-based railway junction performance determination", published in the Journal of Rail Transport Planning and Management (JRTPM).

This study enhances the queueing theory approach for evaluating railway infrastructure performance at junctions by introducing phase-type distributions to model arrival and service processes. The findings demonstrate that this method enables infrastructure managers to more precisely assess timetable-independent capacity in the early planning stages of railway junction infrastructure.

The full publication is available in Open Access, and the research data can be accessed online.

The Institute of Transport Science (VIA) is pleased to announce that two of its contributions were highly recognized at the 11th International Conference on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis (RailDresden 2025).

The article titled "Determine line plan and fare pricing strategies for newly constructed lines with dynamic interactions of passenger demand with travel time and ticket costs", authored by Pengling Wang, Yutao Ye, and Nils Nießen, was awarded as the best paper of the conference. This outstanding work highlights innovative approaches to optimizing line plans and fare strategies, showcasing the dynamic interactions between passenger demand, travel time, and ticket costs.

Additionally, the contribution "A queueing-based approach for timetable-independent railway station performance analysis" by Tamme Emunds and Nils Nießen achieved third place in the competition for best papers. This article introduces a comprehensive approach to timetable-independent performance analysis of railway infrastructure in stations.

The top ten papers from the conference have been invited to be published in the Special Issue on the Best Papers of RailDresden 2025 in the journal "Rail Transport Planning & Management", A complete list of these top ten contributions can be found on the website of the organizer, the International Association of Railway Operations Research.

VIA warmly congratulates all authors on their success and valuable scientific work!

As part of the 11th International Conference on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis (RailDresden 2025), the Young Railway Operations Research Award was presented to outstanding young researchers. The International Association of Railway Operations Research (IAROR) recognized three excellent and innovative research papers submitted by researchers under the age of 35.

Our colleague Tamme Emunds was awarded an impressive second place for his paper "A Queueing-Based Approach for Timetable-Independent Railway Station Performance Analysis" - our warmest congratulations on this remarkable achievement!

First place went to Florian Fuchs from ETH Zurich for his paper "Optimizing Periodic Stability in Railway Timetables: A Microscopic Model for Networks with Macroscopic Comparison". Third place was awarded to Ranfei Zheng for his work "Resource-Based Integrated Train Rescheduling and Rolling Stock Circulation Replanning under Different Rolling Stock Usage Rules".

VIA congratulates all three award winners on their outstanding accomplishments!

From April 1 to 4, the 11th International Conference on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis (RailDresden 2025) took place in Dresden. With 135 presentations and 97 posters, the conference offered a diverse program focused on current topics in railway operations research.

The Institute of Transport Science (VIA) was also well represented, contributing several insights and presenting current research findings to an international audience. Alexandra Benz introduced her paper "A Uniform Assessment Standard for Evaluating the Operational Quality of Railway Lines", which proposes a methodology for assessing the operational quality of railway lines in a comparable way using analytical and simulative approaches. Tamme Emunds contributed two papers: In "A Queueing-Based Approach for Timetable-Independent Railway Station Performance Analysis", he introduced a model for timetable-independent performance analysis of railway infrastructure at stations. Together with Pengling Wang, he also presented the paper "Modelling Traffic-Distribution based Capacity in the Line Planning Problem for a Railway Junction". Another compelling contribution came from Maren Maus and Marielle Gaßner, who presented their poster "Consideration of Network Effects in the Determination of Capacities in Railway Networks".

In addition to the technical presentations, the conference featured a varied supporting program, including the conference dinner and engaging excursions such as a visit to CargoBeamer's test terminal in Leipzig.

Thank you to all organizers, volunteers, speakers, and participants who made this conference such a rewarding and enriching experience!

This summer term, Dr. Andreas Kaldenbach will again give his lecture "Ausgewählte Aspekte des Schienenbahnwesens". This course will be held in the German language. This year, the focus will be on the design of train route management in Germany. Further information can be found in the linked document (in german).

In March 2025, the institute for transport science is organising further training courses on "Planning", "Operation" and "Railway safety and signalling technology" for CFL employees.