This applies particularly for public transport, which today is (still) largely line-bound and based on schedules or flight plans. But even if this tight presetting is released in the future by flexible forms of service, the key question remains: Which services are suitable and economically viable for an area?
Discover our
Areas of Expertise
What it is about
The transport services published in the timetable play a decisive role in determining whether a promised service is attractive to potential passengers. The timetable also defines service and infrastructure requirements. Transport and economic goals can only be achieved through a targeted conception of the transport services.
Optimise, expand or develop new service concepts
There are many reasons and starting points for designing a new service. They range from demand-side or cost-side optimisation of an existing service concept to service design for planned infrastructure extensions to integrated planning of services, operations and infrastructure. This is done, for example, within the framework of strategic planning, transport development plans or cost-benefit studies.
Innovative service concepts with targeted goals and a sense of proportion
We always base our planning on our clients’ requirements and take into account the needs of passengers as well as interactions with operation and infrastructure. Our spectrum ranges from nationwide concepts in long-distance transport to concepts for metropolitan regions and rural areas in local transport, each with their own specific needs.
According to our philosophy, the core function of the service concept is to provide current and potential passengers with a highly attractive service using the available resources of operation and infrastructure. It should meet their needs in the best possible way and thus encourage them to switch from car to public transport. This applies both to supply-oriented planning in local rail passenger transport and to demand-based planning in self-operated long-distance rail passenger transport.
In doing so, we are backed by decades of experience in understanding the reactions of passengers to changes in services. When developing service concepts, we balance the requirements and importances of different demand segments in order to achieve optimal results.
We also consider operating requirements, costs and infrastructure as an integral part of our planning philosophy, leading to comprehensive overall solutions. It can be taken for granted that we are guided by the principles of the integral synchronised timetable. In addition, we strive for optimal solutions for passengers and operators, which can only be achieved by consciously deviating to a greater or lesser extent from the principles of the integral synchronised timetable.
How we support you
We advise and assist you
- in the planning of transport services
- from scratch or focussed on changes in a narrowly defined planning area,
- from the initial planning idea to concrete implementation.
We develop service concepts for
- bus, tram and light rail, underground,
- regional and long-distance transport by rail and bus.
We achieve the integration of transport requirements and infrastructure through
- a close cooperation with infrastructure planners,
- the consideration of infrastructural conditions and expansion possibilities,
- the coordinated determination and optimisation of infrastructure requirements.
What our clients value
- Our clients value our expertise in terms of demand potentials and how to leverage them.
- Our clients appreciate the targeted conception and planning of transport services according to defined quality requirements.
- Our clients appreciate our customised, optimal solutions based on our comprehensive understanding of the system in the conflicting area between customer attractiveness, operation and infrastructure.
- Our customers appreciate our overview of operation and infrastructure costs
- Our customers appreciate our experience in developing step-by-step solutions that complement each other
- We question planning fundamentals and thereby open up new solution areas, which we use creatively
Your
Contact
Our
Experience
Optimisation of services:
- e.g. in the district of Ludwigsburg
Service extensions using the best possible stock synergies:
- Extension of the Niddertalbahn
- Long-distance connection of the city of Jena after the start of operation of VDE 8
- Connection of South/West Saxony to long-distance passenger rail services
New development of service concepts:
- Reactivation of the Horlofftalbahn
- Salzburg-Takt 2030
- Timetable concept for the north-eastern branch of the Salzburg S-Bahn
- In-house service concepts of long-distance passanger rail transport for the purposes of federal transport infrastructure planning
What it is about
The operational concept is the implementation of a service concept. It ranges from timetable design to vehicle deployment and staffing. For us, a practicable operating concept is geared to demand-oriented dimensioning of capacities and keeps an eye on both the operating costs and the stability of the timetable. In addition, operational studies also enable us to make statements about operational quality.
A good plan is the key to success
For us, the starting point of operational planning is the traffic requirements from a service concept. We check these for their feasibility. These include:
- Transport times depending on infrastructure and vehicle, taking into account travel time surcharges and stopping times.
- timetables combining all journeys to be scheduled
- vehicle capacities geared to the expected demand
- Vehicle rotations and vehicle requirements
- Compatibility of vehicles and infrastructure, (platform lengths and heights, control and safety technology)
Die Robustheit des Betriebskonzeptes gegenüber Störungseinflüssen spielt eine wesentliche Rolle für die Stabilität und Pünktlichkeit des Betriebs und damit auch für die Verlässlichkeit und Attraktivität des Angebots für die Fahrgäste. Robustheitsprüfungen und eisenbahnbetriebswissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zeigen ggf. Ursachen von Qualitätsmängeln im Betrieb auf. Sie geben klare Hinweise auf notwendige Infrastrukturmaßnahmen, z. B. bei Gleisen, Weichenverbindungen, Leit- und Sicherungstechnik oder auf sinnvolle Anpassungen am Angebots- und Betriebskonzept. Je nach Untersuchungsmethode ist eine Analyse der bestehenden Situation sinnvoll, bspw. mittels einer Auswertung von Betriebsleitsystemen sowie Erhebungen und Messungen vor Ort.
How we support you
- We develop or review operational concepts for all rail transport modes, from trams to long-distance rail services.
- We take care of the coordination with the infrastructure companies.
- We design timetables with appropriate programme systems and check route and track occupancy.
- In the event of conflicts, we point out solutions. We consider not only the timetable construction, but also the service concepts and the infrastructure.
- When the timetable becomes tight, we carry out operational simulations and determine the quality level of operational concepts.
- We work closely with infrastructure planners and can thus optimally integrate traffic and operational requirements with infrastructural conditions and expansion possibilities.
What our clients value
- Our customers appreciate our comprehensive understanding of systems in the area of conflict between customer attractiveness, operations and infrastructure.
- We develop practical operating concepts by taking into account not only the relevant rules and regulations in our planning, but also experience from real operations.
- Our clients appreciate our open-ended, analytical approach. This enables us to get to the root causes of operational irregularities, identify the relevant interrelationships and develop customised solutions.
- We always gear the methodology and depth of our work to the specific problems of our clients.
Your
Contact
Our
Experience
- Operational studies for the integration of the Regionaltangente West into the Frankfurt light rail network
- Development of the light rail system in the Ludwigsburg district
- Operational conception for the extension of the Niddertalbahn
What it is about
Planned air transport services are recorded in flight plans and are usually publicly accessible. They are the result of a dynamic interplay of
- the demand for travel and air transport
- the location and accessibility of airports
- the strategic orientation of the airlines, and
- the operational and regulatory framework conditions, e.g. available capacities and operating times.
Supply and demand are mutually dependent
Demand and supply develop simultaneously in the aviation market and must be considered in all forecasts. For this purpose, we include the entire, multimodal travel and transport chains in our forecasts, including landside routes to and from the airport as well as transfer and transhipment connectivity. We also consider the operational aspects of aircraft turnaround and fleet planning. This ensures that our service concepts are both demand-driven and economically viable.
We consider the following specific questions in our forecasts:
- Which markets are served as direct or transfer connections via which airport?
- Which time slots, flight frequency and regional development correspond to demand?
- Which slots can be used under operational aspects in order to place flight offers that meet demand?
To which extent can airlines be given room for flexibility in order to further develop their services even with increasingly fewer available slots?
Every flight offer between two airports serves a defined demand market and has a global network effect. This must be taken into account appropriately and be reflected in the models:
- Potential for transporting passengers and/or cargo in direct services or as part of a transfer/transhipment connection.
- Competitive situation with other modes of transport and flight offers of other airlines and/or via other airport locations.
- Synergy effects through intermodal travel/transport chains and cooperation between airlines (code-sharing, alliances)
Airfreight transport as accompanying cargo, on cargo flights and by integrators
Airlines can only place flight offers when suitable slots are still available, especially at busy airports. These slots must be economically usable for flight offers at times in line with demand, taking into account all operational aspects (turnaround, ground times, transfer/transhipment connectivity, etc.).
The number of slots that can practically be allocated to airlines is not a static value. It is rather the result of a complex coordination process in the synopsis of existing flight offers with the newly added slot requests and must fulfil the local slot allocation guidelines. Airport-specific coordination parameters prevent delays in traffic handling by specific benchmarks.
We quantify the development potential of flight offers or the rejected or hidden demand at an airport with high capacity utilisation and/or operating time restrictions. For this purpose, we use specific modelling tools that adequately take into account all the above-mentioned dependencies.
Airlines compete across airports and modes of transport. Competitive advantages arise when travel and transport needs are optimally served and thus demand segments can be developed that enable economically viable flight operations.
Particularly from an airport perspective, the consideration of complete door-to-door travel chains, including landside pre-carriage and onward carriage, which we apply as standard, is advisable. The passenger potential that can be achieved in the long term through corresponding flight offers can only be correctly recorded by taking into account all competing travel alternatives. For example: if travel time is extended at an airport due to time-intensive passenger processes or bottlenecks in landside connections, this will lead to shifts in demand to neighbouring airports. At these airports, the provision of additional corresponding flight offers can be expected in the long term. In our approach, such system-wide effects are implicitly taken into account.
How we support you
- We advise you on the conception of flight offers as a strategic basis for decision-making. For this, we analyse the passenger potential to be expected in the existing competitive environment in relation to the markets served, flight frequency and transfer connectivity, etc.
- We provide you with a clear picture of the network effect of existing and planned flight offerings.
- We advise you on the quantitative recording of flight offers affected by capacity bottlenecks (e.g. slot availability, passenger processes), the affected demand segments and the resulting network effects.
What our clients value
- Our clients appreciate our market knowledge based on data that has been maintained and continuously developed over many years and that differentiates between all demand structures in air transport.
- Our clients appreciate our demand-based perspective, which considers all transport services as part of complete intermodal door-to-door travel chains. This allows us to directly trace all passenger or transport potentials assigned to an airport or flight offer back to basic travel and transport needs.
- Our clients value our expertise and integrated perspective in capturing and modelling all operational, regulatory and demand-related economic issues associated with capacity constraints.
- Our clients appreciate our quantitatively profound working methods and clear presentation of results, both as a basis for strategic decision-making processes and for consideration processes under licensing law.
Your
Contact
Our
Experience
The methodical recording of the demand-related development of flight offers is an integral part of our air traffic forecasts. In addition, we apply our market knowledge and modelling tools on behalf of airports and airlines to estimate the passenger potential of proposed new routes in advance.
- Studies on concrete supply reactions to capacity restrictions, night flight restrictions, price-effective measures
- Support for airports in route marketing
- Advising airlines on network development
- Supply reactions to capacity restrictions
