How Network Rail Plans Train Timetables (emf2026)

How are train timetables put together? Find out how Network Rail, the organisation responsible for running and maintaining Britain's rail network, fits together different kinds of trains into a single timetable, and how the competing demands of freight trains, stopping trains and express passenger trains are weighed to allocate limited space on the tracks. In this talk I will draw on my own experience of train planning to demonstrate how Network Rail uses graphs to plan the movements of trains, how different types of trains fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and how we build a timetable to make sure that trains don't crash into each other! I am an Operational Planning Specialist for Network Rail who has worked in Capacity Planning (aka, train timetabling) for the past six years and will explain what Network Rail's Capacity Planning team does, how the rail industry puts timetables together, the technical challenges, and how we try to keep multiple different parties happy. Licensed to the public under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ about this event: https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2026/146-how-network-rail-plans-train-timetables