Capacity

Summary In view of the different concepts and procedures concerning railway infrastructure capacity and the resulting calculations applied by infrastructure managers, this leaflet provides a unique approach to capacity evaluation in the shape of the compression method, which is recommended for those infrastructure managers that use IT support in their evaluations. Unlike the theoretical concepts developed, the compression method is applied to real timetables with practical measurements intended to establish a common understanding of infrastructure capacity. For the first time, a methodology is presented enabling the calculation of nodes capacity based on the same principles. The primary goal of this leaflet is to provide an international standard for evaluating capacity, to be used towards developing common values for international corridors sharing different railway networks in different countries. Application of this leaflet will ensure that capacity can be evaluated according to uniform principles. The use of other methods can be agreed by the infrastructure managers involved.