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Rail Capacity (Trains Per Hour) Calculator

Work out rail capacity (trains per hour) instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Rail Capacity (Trains Per Hour) Calculator

Theoretical capacity is 3,600 divided by the technical headway, but no railway can be run at that level. Recovery time to absorb small delays and a penalty for mixed speeds (fast passenger behind slow freight) reduce it — UIC 406 guidance puts practical utilisation around 60-75% on mixed lines.

Formula

Practical capacity

practical headway = technical headway x (1 + recovery) x (1 + heterogeneity); tph = 3600 / practical headway

Worked example

With the default values below, Rail Capacity (Trains Per Hour) Calculator returns Practical capacity of 17.14. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Technical minimum headway
150 s
Recovery and buffer allowance
25 %
Mixed traffic penalty
12 %

Results

Practical capacity
17.14 tph
Theoretical capacity
24.00 tph
Practical headway
210 s
Suggested maximum utilisation
71% %

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Practical capacity
  3. 3Practical capacity= 17.14 tph
  4. 4Theoretical capacity= 24.00 tph
  5. 5Practical headway= 210 s
  6. 6Suggested maximum utilisation= 71 %

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 3 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
  • Rail results are planning estimates only. Verify against the infrastructure manager's rule book, approved braking curves and applicable railway safety regulations.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Rail results are planning estimates only. Verify against the infrastructure manager's rule book, approved braking curves and applicable railway safety regulations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does mixed traffic cost capacity?

A slow train ahead of a fast one consumes the path of both, since the fast train cannot close up. Homogeneous timetables carry far more trains.

What utilisation is sustainable?

UIC 406 suggests around 75% in the peak and 60% over the day for mixed traffic; beyond that, delays no longer recover between trains.

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