Process Descriptions in detail

The date when a dossier is opened determines what kind of path request is made. So, for the next timetable year, until X-8, a new dossier with process type New Path Request will be made.

The X means the date when the new yearly timetable starts. The number 8 means 8 months before the date “X” starting of the new timetable period.

Dossiers in this process should be submitted as path requests until X-8.

Dossiers opened before X-8 but submitted as a request after X-8 (after the New Path Request deadline defined in the RNE process calendar) are automatically changed into the corresponding process type (Late Path Request or Ad-hoc Path Request).

The whole process consists of the following phases:

The dossier should go through all process steps introduced above until the Active Timetable and it should be closed when it is not needed anymore.

Further information about process steps can be found under the description of phases in 4. Phases of the Path Request.

2. Process Late Path Request (LPR)

This is the second process for placing path requests into the regular yearly timetable.

The new dossier with process type Late Path Request will be made when it is opened after X-8 until X-2.

Dossier opened after X-8 until X-2 but submitted as a request after X-2 is automatically changed into the corresponding process type Ad hoc Path Request.

The whole process consists of the following phases:

The late path request process has some phases named differently to easily identify the late path request offer.

The milestone “Draft Timetable” (in NPR) is named “Late Request Offer” and the phase “Observations” is named “Acceptance”.

For this process type, so-called “one-time” promotions deadlines” as the new path request process types.

Some phases are optional for the Applicants, they do not need to go through all of the phases they can decide to accept the offer and jump from the acceptance to the active timetable phase, skipping the post-processing and final offer phases.

3. Process Ad-hoc Path Request

3.1 Ad-hoc process type

This is the third process type for placing a path request. This process is used for requests outside the yearly timetable (placed too late to be there or for an already running timetable).

The new dossier with process type Ad hoc Path Request will be made when it is opened after X-2 until X+12. The X means the date when the new timetable period starts.

The ad-hoc path request process has some phases named differently to easily identify the ad-hoc path request offer.

The milestone “Draft Timetable” (in NPR) is named “Ad hoc Request Offer” and the phase “Observations” is named “Acceptance”.

Not only the name of the phase is different, but the possible steps in this phase too. In the New Path Request process, the dossier is moved always from Observations to Post-Processing, however in the Ad-hoc process, the Applicants can “jump” from acceptance directly to active timetable phases by skipping the post-processing and final offer phases.

If they find the Ad-hoc Request Offer suitable enough, they can set their acceptance indicator to green. When all lights are green, the leading Applicant can release the dossier to the active timetable immediately.

The next difference between the new path request and late path request process types is that the ad-hoc process type is not deadline-driven, meaning there are no defined automatic promotions for ad-hoc dossiers.

The normal ad-hoc process type can be a pre-accepted or partially harmonized process type. PCS gives freedom for Applicants to choose which ad-hoc process type they want to be in depending on their business needs.

3.2 Ad-hoc Pre-accepted process type

For the ad-hoc process type exists a faster process during the dossier creation, the leading Applicant can select an ad-hoc pre-accepted offer process type too. In this case, the request must be a fully harmonized process either on the Applicant’s or on the IM’s side.

Selecting the pre-accepted offer option, Applicants declare that any Ad-hoc Request Offer they receive from the IMs will be accepted automatically. It means, in this case, there is no Acceptance phase, the dossier goes directly to the Active Timetable after the Ad-hoc Request Offer by skipping acceptance, post-processing and final offer phases.

3.3 Ad-hoc process type (partially harmonized)

This is another option for the ad-hoc process type for placing ad-hoc path requests, but it starts in the same way as a fully harmonized ad-hoc path request. Before the leading Applicant issues the Path Request (during the Harmonization phase), the system provides a possibility for the leading Applicant to change the handling of the ad-hoc path request from a fully harmonised to a partially harmonized process. If the leading Applicant chooses the partially harmonized process, the dossier is split in a way that each Applicant-IM pair could be in a different phase of the process. For example, the first Applicant-IM pair could be already in Path Elaboration while the second is still in Harmonization.

All the process steps for Ad-hoc Path Request partially harmonized are the same as for the fully harmonised. Dossier can be processed partially and Applicant-IM pairs can be in different phases until Acceptance. The dossier cannot go from Acceptance to Active Timetable partially. That is why the pre-accepted offer does not support partial harmonization.

4. Process Feasibility Study (FS)

Feasibility Study is a special process that allows the Applicants to review and work on their timetable concept with the IMs before the path request is placed.

A precondition to start the feasibility study process by the leading Applicant is that the dossiers should be in the harmonization phase.

Time limitations:

Inactive dossiers in the Harmonization Conference are automatically switched back to Harmonization of the original process.
- If there was no editing of a dossier 15 days after the start of the Harmonization Conference
- If there was no editing of a dossier 8 days after the last change in the Harmonization Conference
These checks above are switched off from approx. mid-December until approx. mid-January.
Exact dates are defined in the corresponding PCS Process Guidelines

The Feasibility Study process consists of the following phases:

New Path Request	Late Path Request
1. Harmonization Conference (HC) – Applicant phase 2. Feasibility Study Request – Milestone 3. Feasibility Study Elaboration – Milestone 4. Feasibility Elaboration Conference – Applicant/IM phase 5. Feasibility Study Result – Applicant phase	1. Harmonization Conference (HC) – Applicant phase 2. Feasibility Study Request – IM phase 3. Feasibility Study Elaboration – Milestone 4. Feasibility Elaboration Conference – Applicant/IM phase 5. Feasibility Study Result – Applicant phase

The FS process is more characteristic of the New Path Request process type

The Applicant does not have to go through all the phases mentioned above. The leading Applicant always has the right (except in the feasibility elaboration conference phase) to end the feasibility study during preparation or to accept the result and return to the harmonization phase. Once exiting the process after the request was sent the feasibility read-only timetable will be created to make sure that IMs work will not be lost.

5. Process Pre-booking

This is a special process type for Corridor Managers of the Rail Freight Corridors who will pre-book Pre-arranged Paths (PaPs) or will pre-book the accepted alternative PaPs. Basically, they have to decide about the reservation of PaPs. They also need to solve the conflicts in case of multiple requests for the same PaP or PaP sections, and as a result of conflict solving the C-OSS managers, can offer alternative PaPs in this case the dossier enters the phases of the Alternative branch process.

In the Pre-Booking phase, the C-OSS manager has an extra menu to manage the PaP requests. It is visible when opening a dossier and called: “PaP request details” view:

The PaP origin-destination pairs in the dossier are in the “requested” state in the Pre-booking phase, highlighting in violet that it has been requested by the Applicants and needs to be processed further by the C-OSS Managers.

The warning message is also shown on control, that there are PaP requests that have not been processed yet. Clicking the pencil icon C-OSS managers will be directed to the PaP request details view to start to process of the PaP origin-destination pairs and indicate their decision.

All PaP requests should be processed and if the request lacks plausibility that can be solved the C-OSS managers can submit Alternative Offer Created.

Legend description

Requested: the PaP is requested by an Applicant, it is not in conflict with any other requests
Reserved: the C-OSS reserved the PaP for the Applicant. It’s possible now for the C-OSS to start alternative offer creation (to edit the timetable) if it’s necessary.
Conflict: the PaP is requested by more Applicants, the C-OSS needs to apply the priority rule
Waiting for alternative: this request was in conflict for that PaP with another request, and the other was chosen with higher priority. To proceed further this request either needs an alternative PaP or a tailor-made solution.
Reserved alternative: this request was in conflict for that PaP with another request, and the other was chosen with higher priority, and the C-OSS already reserved an alternative PaP
Alternative offered: after selecting and reserving an alternative PaP, the C-OSS sent this offer as a preview to the Applicant, and we are waiting for the customer’s feedback
Alternative rejected: the Applicant rejected the proposed alternative PaP. Requesting a tailor-made solution is still an option for the C-OSS
Alternative accepted: the Applicant accepted the proposed alternative PaP. The C-OSS can proceed with the Pre-Booking.
Dossier reference calendar: in case the request contains tailor-made points, which were previously not published within the PaP (the Applicant added them during Harmonization), those days are marked with this dark blue colour. These shall be considered already as a tailor-made path section.

Coordinating C-OSS edit rights (PaP sections) in the following phases:

Alternative Offer Reserved: after doing the conflict resolution the C-OSS user replaced the original PaP with an alternative and reserved it for the Applicant.
- After the alternative PaP is selected and added to the dossier on the Alternative Offer preview page can edit the following:
  - Activity/Location types
  - Arrival and departure times (actual/earliest/latest)
  - Dwell time
  - Train/Path number
  - Add path sections (feeder/intermediate/outflow points)
- Note: not possible to remove any PaP path section on the preview page
Alternative Offer Created: after doing the plausibility check the C-OSS user recognized a problem and he/she fixed minor issues in the timetable.
- Pre-condition for entering this phase is to reserve the PaP. Editing possibilities on the PaP path sections on their corridor are the following:
  - Arrival and departure times (actual/earliest/latest)
  - Dwell time
  - Activity/location types
  - Train/Path number
  - Add path sections (feeder/intermediate/outflow points)
  - Common train parameters
  - Path section level IM parameters
If there are tailor-made points normal editing rules apply as for applicants in the open/harmonization phases

If the Applicant agrees to the alternative PaP then the PaP is pre-booked. If the Applicant refuses the alternative PaP or does not give an answer on time then the request will be tailor-made.

In the Alternative Accepted/Rejected phases the C-OSS has to proceed to pre-booking, basically pressing the button on the control to return to the pre-booking phase in order to continue with the process of the path request “normal” phases and leave the alternative branch special process.

Phases of the alternate branch:

New Path Request	Late Path Request	Ad-hoc Path Request
1.1 Alternative Offer Reserved – C-OSS phase (starting the process from the PaP details view) 1.2 Alternative Offer Created – C-OSS phase (starting the process from control) 2. Alternative Offered – Applicant phase 3. Alternative Accepted or Rejected – C-OSS phase	1. Alternative Offer Created – C-OSS phase 2. Alternative Offered – Applicant phase 3. Alternative Accepted or Rejected – C-OSS phase	1. Alternative Offer Created – C-OSS phase 2. Alternative Offered – Applicant phase 3. Alternative Accepted or Rejected – C-OSS phase

In the Late Path Request and Ad-hoc Path Request processes, the PaP request is immediately reserved in the system and searching for an alternative is not possible to follow the allocation rules defined in the process guidelines: “first-come, first-served”.

If the request lacks plausibility that can be solved by the C-OSS managers it will be corrected and processed like other requests then the C-OSS manager can create the alternative offer otherwise it is not necessary to enter the alternate branch phases it can be released to path elaboration after the plausibility check is completed by the C-OSS manager.

6. Process Path Modification

Path Modification allows the Applicants to ask for the change of some elements on the already final agreed path. Such modification can be requested for one part or for the whole validity period of the dossier.

The pre-condition for the start of the Path Modification process is that the dossier is in the Active timetable phase (the final phase of each Path Request process).

The path Modification process is then started by any Applicant (initiator) at any time.

PCS constraints that CANNOT request a change for days that are in the past!

Phases of the Path Modification process:

Path Modification Conference – Applicant phase
Path Modification Request – Milestone
Path Modification Elaboration – IM phase
Path Modification Offer – Applicant phase

The leading Applicant can withdraw the modification request and go back to the original state into the Active timetable phase until the Path Modification Elaboration phase. If the dossier is withdrawn then the dossier is leaving the Path modification process type and returning to the original path request process type.

Note: Further information about path modification process steps can be found under the description of phases.

Start of the process

First, the Applicant has to press the”Submit path modification conference” button on control where the process will start with a wizard. It works in all process types the same way.

An applicant opens a dossier in the Path Modification Conference and applies the required modification on the selected sub-path.

Path Modification types

The preventing of the path cancellation raised by Applicants was changed in the version 2.64.0 release deplyoment.

The following Path modification types are available in the system:

Additional days
Modification of departure or arrival time
Modification of route
Modification of train parameters
Border/Handover/Interchange times adaptation

Affected pairs

The behaviour of the acceptance indicator was changed in the 2.61.0 release deployment.

The affection types:

AUTO affection: a territory can be affected by the process AUTO only in case there are border changes
Manual affection: a territory can be affected by the process initiator
Self-affection: a territory can be affected by themselves

A territory can be affected/disaffected in the process only when the process is started or the dossier is in the Path Modification Conference.

When the user tries to set the green light of an affected territory and the system detects that there are NO timetable changes then the neighbouring Applicant should not be bothered and the system will disaffect this territory. If there are changes that are affecting the border, the system will downgrade the partners’ light to blue automatically and mark the partner with AUTO affection regardless if they were involved with manual affection.

Initiator Applicant is marked with the following symbol:

Can be affected pair is marked with the following symbol:

AUTO affected pair is marked with the following symbol:

Edit timetable

Once the reason for the path modification and the involved pair (s) have been determined, the Applicant timetable will be editable for the initiator Applicant.

Changes could be:

Times
Parameters
Calendar

Prevent cancellation of the days

The preventing of the path cancellation raised by Applicants was changed in the version 2.64.0 release deployment. The path cancellation request should be done outside of PCS.

Rules that apply:

Applicants aren’t able to cancel days that were already allocated
Applicants aren’t allowed to edit a sub-path that has running days in the past – editing of the times is not possible, so cancellation of the days due to midnight crossing is not possible

Use case where the changes are allowed:

Changes in the times can lead to midnight crossing in some of the path sections that are different from the reference point, and this can lead to cancellation of days
Defining a manual offset can lead to midnight crossing in some of the path sections that are different from the reference point, and this can lead to cancellation of days

Use case where the changes are not allowed:

Changing the times manually on the reference point, can lead to a day shift behind or forward. With this action applicants, applicants can do time and calendar adaptations within the same action which will not be allowed.

Accept/Reject changes

Affected Applicants/IMs should check the changes that were made by the initiator Applicant in the dossier in order to submit it to the next path modification phase.

If for some reason, one of the partners rejects and changes the acceptance indicators to red then must add a mandatory comment to explain the reason for the action.

Comments

When the path modification process is started PCS saves the action automatically into the comment area including the selected path modification types.

The same happens if the affected parties reject the offer, and the reason for the action is also recorded in the comments area.

Acceptance indicator rules

The behaviour of the acceptance indicator was changed in the 2.61.0 release deployment.

When the process is started the acceptance indicator of the process initiator is set to yellow and IMs’ acceptance indicator should stay green.
If the territory is affected in the process manual by the process initiator then the acceptance indicator of the affected agency should be set to blue and IMs’ acceptance indicator should stay green.
If the territory is affected in the process by itself then the acceptance indicator of the affected agency should be set to blue and IMs’ acceptance indicator should stay green.

7. Process Path Alteration

The process allows for the IMs the possibility to ask for alteration for one part or for the whole validity period of the dossier.

Phases of the Path Alteration process:

Path Alteration Conference – IM phase
Path Alteration Offer – Applicant phase

The leading IM can withdraw the alteration request and go back to the original state into the Active timetable phase until the Path Modification Elaboration phase. If the dossier is withdrawn then the dossier is leaving the Path modification process type and returning to the original path request process type.

Note: Further information about path alteration process steps can be found under the description of phases.