Synthese

Synthese: Open-Source Rail Transportation Network Simulator

Real-time rail network simulation software for evaluating timetables and infrastructure capacity, with open-source train movement modeling and infrastructure constraint handling.

What is Synthese?

Synthese is an open-source software developed by the Swiss Federal Railways to perform large-scale real-time simulations of rail transportation systems. It is designed to model complex rail networks, train movements, and infrastructure constraints to evaluate timetables, infrastructure capacity, and robustness.

Some key features of Synthese include:

• Modeling of railway infrastructure like tracks, signals, and stations
• High-fidelity modeling of train movements subject to speed limits, stop patterns, and interlocking constraints
• Simulating timetables with individual train runs for analysis of delays and knock-on effects
• Evaluating proposed timetables under perturbations before real-world implementation
• Visualization of simulation results on an interactive graphical user interface

Synthese can import infrastructure and timetable data from various standard formats used by infrastructure managers and train operating companies. Its fast simulation engine can compress days or weeks of scheduled trains into hours of simulation time.

The outputs allow companies to identify bottlenecks in infrastructure capacity, improve robustness of timetables, and evaluate infrastructure changes or upgrades before committing resources. The open architecture also enables customization to specific analysis needs.

Synthese Features

Official Links