The Smith Institute provided Resonate with independent, quantitative evidence for the impact of their traffic management solution on rail operations and performance.

Resonate is a technology company specialising in digital solutions for the rail industry. During the period June 2018 – June 2019, Resonate provided a new traffic management solution, Luminate, to Network Rail for trial on an important subarea of the Western Route (between London Paddington and Bristol Parkway). The aim of Luminate is to reduce the delay experienced by trains by giving increased visibility and greater insight into the system-level effects of decisions.

A crucial part of preparing for the trial was to build a methodology to assess the impact of Luminate on railway performance. The Smith Institute’s role in creating this methodology was to develop bespoke statistical models for predicting a baseline railway performance and then to identify the level of improvement in performance during the trial through data analysis.

We investigated whether performance trends had changed significantly during the trial and we compared the actual daily values for performance measures with the predictions produced by our baseline models. Using data collected by the Luminate software, we also investigated the relationship between usage metrics and performance.

Our analysis and statistical models have played a key role in unravelling the complexity of measuring Luminate’s contributions to railway network performance. The Smith Institute’s work has enabled Resonate to obtain independent, quantitative evidence for Luminate’s impact.

The Smith Institute brought rigour and independence to a challenging technical and commercial environment. Sometimes years of experience in a particular field can limit the way that problems are perceived and you need to let the data tell its own story. Through their data analysis, the Smith Institute team have brought a fresh perspective to the complex area of rail operations and performance, with a novel approach to assessing the impact of investment in the industry.

Daren Wood
Vision Director at Resonate