Each passenger counts

The intelligent passenger traffic forecasting system implemented in railway transport has won the Movement Formula Award. This development, like many digital products in the holding company's ecosystem, has strong export potential.

The Transport of Russia forum concluded with a prestigious industry award ceremony. The professional community focused on developing the "Software Package for Modeling and Forecasting Passenger Flows" project. German Sukonnikov, First Deputy Head of the IT Department at Russian Railways, won the award for "Best Transport Digitalization Solution."

"I am thrilled that the collaborative efforts of our team in the passenger and IT divisions have led to the successful implementation of a valuable tool for the passenger complex, earning a prestigious award. We surpassed our strong competitors," German Sukonnikov stressed.

The software package predicts passenger traffic at three levels: intercity, agglomeration, and micro-level within transport hubs. The software package determines optimal parameters for new projects, including speed limits, communication frequency, tariff policies, and evaluates the impact of various transport modes on each other.

"The system can simulate the impact of commissioning a new toll highway on transport mode shifts," explained German Sukonnikov. - It can also model the impact of introducing a low-cost airline route, reducing ticket prices in a specific direction. The passenger traffic forecasting system evaluates how these changes influence the switch between rail and air transport, offering the ability to assess any modifications in transport infrastructure."

According to the IT Department, the system has broad applications beyond railways, particularly in urban development, and offers significant potential for replication and export. The solution is suitable for implementation in the markets of friendly countries.

To accurately predict rail passenger traffic, it is essential to analyze transport flows and evaluate mode-switching dynamics. The software package is suitable for forecasting aviation, road traffic flows, and multimodal passenger flows across various countries.

The Agglomeration module can be used to predict urban public transport flows across global cities, including outside Russia, while the TPU and railway stations module can model various transportation hubs, including airports and bus terminals.

The export portfolio of Russian Railways includes 16 IT projects and 8 services, sought after in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and other countries.

The industrial competence center "Railway Transport and Logistics" is developing additional high-export-potential products," said German Sukonnikov.

Other solutions with good export potential developed within the holding company's ecosystem include: the Cloud Factory of software robots, the Corporate Data Management System of JSC Russian Railways, the holding company's Resource Management System, projects using IoT technology and artificial intelligence.

A software package for modeling and forecasting passenger flows is being developed by the industrial competence center (ICC) "Railway Transport and Logistics" to replace foreign digital industry solutions.

The developer of the software package was the Center for Infrastructure Economics (CIE). Maxim Fadeev, First Vice President at the Center for Infrastructure Economics, noted that work on the project had been going on for a year and a half. The software package focuses on forecasting passenger traffic at intercity and agglomeration levels and micro-modeling passenger flows within transport hubs.

"I would like to thank Russian Railways for trusting our team. I hope that we will continue to implement digital solutions for the Russian Railways holding company and for the industry as a whole," he said.

The software package for modeling and forecasting passenger flows is planned to be used throughout the country, including at the future Moscow-St. Petersburg HSL. Maxim Fadeev explained that passenger traffic can be forecasted by considering the territory's socio-economic development and "inter-modal competition," which refers to the shift of passengers between different transport modes.