LUKS basic - Infrastructure and train editor

General characteristics

Incorporated method is certified and required by German railway authority (EBA) to validate infrastructure actions.
Common successor of former tools STRELE, SPURPLAN, FAKTUS/RUT-0, ANKE and BABSI.
Recommended by UIC for capacity analysis of ETCS.
Applied for consulting work on networks inside and outside Europe.
Different import and export interfaces for infrastructure and timetable data.

Interfaces simplify both the import and export

To ensure an efficient integration into the workflow, LUKS offers various interfaces to read different formats of infrastructure and timetables. In certain cases, it’s also possible to export data from LUKS. Lists of the currently implemented interfaces are given below.

Infrastructure data

XML-ISS import and export (compatible to DaViT)
Import from RUT-0
Import from RailML
Import from Artemis
If no adaptable infrastructure graph is available yet, the elements (e.g. gradients, signals) of tracks can be imported from text-files

Timetable / operating programme

XML-KSS import and export (compatible to RUT-K)
Import from RUT-0 (former tools FAKTUS and ANKE)
Import from Viriato (very close to railML scheme)
Import from Paula-Z

Infrastructure editor

It is usually the case that investigations of railway operations reveal a need to alter imported infrastructure data speedily and straightforwardly. But it must also be possible to completely recapture infrastructure without unreasonable effort.
The figure below shows the Infrastructure Editor’s standard view with the usual screen layout for LUKS: tracks can be seen on a one-to-one basis in the upper half, whilst details of the program module currently running are to be found in the bottom half.

In the case of the Infrastructure Editor, these include a list of infrastructure elements within the inter-S&C section currently selected, details of the current track-layout element an a number of buttons for rapid adjustment of the element’s values and the graphic display.

Great value was attached when developing the user interface to simplifying standard work steps and providing access to them within a low number of operator actions. The various Editors are accordingly configured in context-related fashion; little resort is had to dialogue boxes, which make processing rather heavy-going.

Routes and tracks

Building on a given infrastructure, use is made in LUKS of “control post routes” to map all running options admitted by the signalling system. A route of this kind defines the course of a train’s movement through a control post, described as a series of decisions taken at all S&C systems to be negotiated.

Platform tracks can also be entered in LUKS along with routes. They are likewise based on the infrastructure initially captured and are required for the track-occupation diagram, as a means of demarcating “track groups” in analytical studies or, in simulation exercises, of establishing spatial limits for various types of interconnection between train movements.