Evaluation of railway capacity

This paper describes the relatively new UIC 406 method for calculating capacity consumption on railway lines. The UIC 406 method is an easy and effective way of calculating the capacity consumption, but it is possible to expound the UIC 406 method in different ways which can lead to different capacity consumptions. This paper describes the UIC 406 method and how it is expounded in Denmark. The paper describes the importance of choosing the right length of the line sections examined and how line sections with multiple track sections are examined. Furthermore, the possibility of using idle capacity to run more trains is examined. The paper presents a method to examine the expected capacity utilization of future timetables. The method is based on the plan of operation instead of the exact (known) timetable. At the end of the paper it is described how it is possible to make capacity statements of a railway network. Some of the aspects which have to be paid attention to making annual capacity statements are presented too.