Improved Service, Operating Efficiency Up to 6 Percent Due to Better Resource Utilization
ILOG(R), an IBM (NYSE: IBM) Company, today announced that Netherlands Railways is using the IBM ILOG OPL-CPLEX(R) Development System to enhance its rolling stock allocation for better resource utilization. Using ILOG optimization technology as a key component of its custom Rolling Stock Allocation application (ROSA), Netherlands Railways has been able to improve its operating efficiency by as much as six percent, netting the railway a cost savings of over EUR 20 million annually. As part of another scheduling application that also uses IBM ILOG CPLEX, the railway has improved on-time.
Netherlands Railways manages more than 4,800 trains per day in the Netherlands through a 2,100 kilometers long network of 279 stations. In the period before 2006, the railway experienced a significant traffic increase — the passengers traveled a total of 15.4 billion kilometers — and was operating the busiest national railway network in Europe. It was determined that more accurately matching trains to expected user traffic was crucial to keep costs down and service on time, leading to the search for a new, automated solution for scheduling their operations.
Source IBM.