Automate and Optimise Freight Train Planning

UK freight planners often rely on manual spreadsheet processes. They can spend weeks each quarter converting commercial demand into operational train plans while managing hundreds of variables. These include locomotive types, terminal operating windows, wagon compatibility, and customer cut-off times – a slow, labour-intensive approach that leaves capacity and revenue untapped.

This project will develop an automated train planning system combining two core modules: a constraint satisfaction solver (a systematic algorithm that finds solutions meeting all operational requirements simultaneously) that rapidly generates feasible train plans, and an AI-based optimiser that fine-tunes these plans to maximise asset utilisation while minimising driver hours and operational costs.

By automating this critical planning process and reducing planning time from weeks to hours, the tool will make rail freight more competitive, enabling better capacity utilisation and supporting the modal shift toward cleaner, higher-capacity rail operations that contribute to UK decarbonisation goals.

Publications and outputs

www.gov.uk/government/publications/transport-technology-research-innovation-grants-t-trig-funding-winners