Promoting a consistent open source workflow for railway analysis by connecting OSRD and SUMO

In the past two years the Open Source Railway Designer (OSRD) has been presented at FOSDEM. The integrations shown there sparked our interest in testing OSRD ourselves in a practical context. In initial studies we used OSRD to evaluate capacity effects on highly congested corridors, including a scenario with a speed increase in rail freight transport. These studies show that OSRD provides a solid basis for open, reproducible capacity studies.

However, the next crucial step in the planning process is microscopic operational simulation, which can be used to evaluate the effect of timetables and operating procedures over time and during disrupted operations. This component is not yet part of the OSRD workflow. To address precisely this gap, we have investigated how the agent-based tool SUMO (Simulation of Urban MObility) can be applied for railway operational issues. SUMO enables a detailed representation of vehicle movements along an infrastructure under a given timetable and allows delays and different operating modes to be modelled.

In a case study on the Frankfurt underground, we used SUMO to analyse various operational concepts. This included simulations in fixed-block and moving-block operation as well as the modelling of a driverless shunting. The results show that SUMO delivers precise insights into the dynamic system behaviour and provides relevant key figures for operational evaluation - while also exposing the framework conditions and limitations of the current approach.

Finally, we discuss the potential of linking OSRD and SUMO: from open infrastructure modelling and timetable mapping to microscopic operational simulation. We would like to outline how a consistent open source workflow for railway and light rail systems could be created and invite the community to develop it further together.

Open Source Railway Designe (OSRD) https://osrd.fr/en/ Simulation of Urban MObility (SUMO) https://eclipse.dev/sumo/