Connex has recently implemented a new system to help minimise the delays for passengers caused by disruption to the rail service.

Developed by Rotherfield Peppard plc in cooperation with Connex, SHEILA is designed to provide easy access to Train Crew Planning Data across the entire Train Operating Company, but with particular focus on providing assistance to service delivery and production personnel. It takes daily extracts from the train planning and crew planning systems to create an accurate current database avaliable to however many operational and control managers may need it.

When operations are disrupted and immediate replanning is required, SHEILA replaces the current slow and inefficient processes in which staff under pressure have to search through paper documents to find the planned arrangements for the day, and then cut and tape them together to create newdiagrams and schedule/stopping cards.

Using SHEILA, the operator can call up any current train crew diagrams by depot and date, and will be able to see the correct plan for the chosen date, taking into account both the Long Term Plan and the Short Term Plan.

For this the operator can for example:

• Examine individual diagrams to make decisions about possible short-term changes to unplanned events.
• Immediately produce current or new Schedule/Stopping Cards either locally or remotely.
• Generate a list of all trains by Working Timetable, providing quick and easy access to diagram details for the management of short term changes.
• Produce crew turnaround lists for all stations where trains terminate.
• Search for crews by duties and depot, for trains by headcode or time and by location.
• Print certain diagrams/schedule cards by pick list instead of individually as with earlier systems.

All of this is of particular value in making and validating short-term arrangements during changing and adverse operating conditions.

HQ and out-based operational managers can immediately benefit from installing the SHEILA system. In normal times they will benefit from reducing the current clerical paper handling tasks, whilst in times of operational disturbance they will be able to react more more rapidly and efficiantly to events as they occur.