Case Study: Swiss Federal Railways accelerates train scheduling with Hazelcast

Swiss Federal Railways speeds train scheduling from several minutes to near-instant with Hazelcast

The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) faced the immense challenge of algorithmically planning conflict-free train schedules for one of the densest railway networks in Europe. Their initial proof-of-concept for an automated system was too slow to scale, as the vast number of route combinations created a massive number-crunching problem. To accelerate data access and increase overall system performance, SBB implemented the Hazelcast Platform as a high-performance in-memory data layer.

Using Hazelcast, SBB dramatically sped up data access for its scheduling system, which runs on OpenShift. This provided planners with a comprehensive dashboard that delivers immediate feedback and visualizations instead of making them wait several minutes for updates. The solution allows SBB to produce commercially viable timetables faster and with reduced risk of error, supporting what is possibly the most ambitious automated timetable effort in Europe.

Swiss Federal Railways