Dev:Border between infrastructure managers and countries

Introduction

Border between infrastructure managers (handover point) is the point where legal responsibility changes between the infrastructure managers [TAF TAP TSI].

These IM borders can be found between countries and within one e.g. in case there are private and national railway infrastructure managers in a country. Sometimes there are also two railway lines meeting each other.

There are two approaches to represent border between infrastructure managers in railML2: with one or two tracks. To answer a question which example to use when, this seems to be a preference of a user. Both examples are syntactically and semantically valid and actually came from two different users of railML^® 2.

It is important to ensure the correct definition of the railway tracks, e.g. additional semantic constraints apply e.g. IS:003 "If two <track>s are connected, the @absPos values of the connected <trackBegin> and <trackEnd> must be identical" .

Example with two tracks

The photo show an example of a ‘handover point’ at the Germany-Austria border. In the source code, shown below, there are two tracks belonging to two infrastructure managers ÖBB Infra () in Austria and DB InfraGO ( 🇩🇪) in Germany. Ownership is represented by <ownerChange> elements. Each of them has <ownerChange> positioned at the beginning. This is due to the reasoning that every track should be considered a separate system with its own properties defined.

Further information about IMs is given in the <infrastructureManager> element and corresponding code list (link to the railML^® website).

Here also two railway lines meet each other. Therefore restriction IS:003 cannot be fulfilled because tracks belong to different mileage systems. This is represented via two railway lines referring to tracks.

Border between infrastructure managers ÖBB Infra () in Austria and DB InfraGO ( 🇩🇪) in Germany (By Renardo la vulpo/Image source/CC0)

<metadata>
  <organizationalUnits>
    <infrastructureManager id="ima01" code="DBN"/>
    <infrastructureManager id="ima02" code="ÖBB"/>
  </organizationalUnits>
</metadata>
..
<track id="tr01">
  <trackTopology>
    <trackBegin id="tb01" pos="0" absPos="0">..</trackBegin>
    <trackEnd id="te01" pos="59" absPos="59">..</trackEnd>
  </trackTopology>
  <trackElements>
    ..
    <ownerChange id="och01" pos="0" absPos="0" infrastructureManagerRef="ima01"/>
    ..
  </trackElements>
</track>
<track id="tr02">
  <trackTopology>
    <trackBegin id="tb02" pos="0" absPos="115">..</trackBegin>
    <trackEnd id="te02" pos="30" absPos="85">..</trackEnd>
  </trackTopology>
  <trackElements>
    ..
    <ownerChange id="och02" pos="0" absPos="115" infrastructureManagerRef="ima02"/>
    ..
  </trackElements>
</track>

<trackGroups>
  <line id="lin01" infrastructureManagerRef="ima01" name="Bahnstrecke München–Simbach">
    <trackRef ref="tr01"/>
  </line>
  <line id="lin02" infrastructureManagerRef="ima02" name="Bahnstrecke Neumarkt-Kallham–Braunau">
    <trackRef ref="tr02"/>
  </line>
</trackGroups>

Example with one track

Technically one track is also enough because there is no need for the second track to represent change. See example of one track representing a "Border between infrastructure managers" below.

The photo show an example of a ‘handover point’ at the Germany-Czech Republic border on Děčín–Dresden-Neustadt_railway (). This line is operated by two different rail operating companies, Správa_železnic () in the Czech Republic and DB InfraGO ( 🇩🇪) in Germany, meaning there is a change in infrastructure managers. Mileage of the border was obtained from .

<metadata>
  <organizationalUnits>
    <infrastructureManager id="ima01" code="DBN"/>
    <infrastructureManager id="ima02" code="SZD"/>
  </organizationalUnits>
</metadata>
..
<track id="tr01">
  <trackTopology>
    <trackBegin id="tb01" pos="0" absPos="0">..</trackBegin>
    <trackEnd id="te01" pos="50000" absPos="50000">..</trackEnd>
  </trackTopology>
  <trackElements>
    ..
    <ownerChange id="och01" pos="0" absPos="0" infrastructureManagerRef="ima01"/>
    <ownerChange id="och02" pos="11859" absPos="11859" infrastructureManagerRef="ima02" name="Bahnverw.grenze Bad Schandau Gr"/>
    ..
  </trackElements>
</track>