The Swedish Transport Administration and Digital Tvilling initiate pilot of Metronom for increased punctuality and efficiency
The Swedish Transport Administration and Digital Tvilling AB are conducting a pilot of the Metronom tool ahead of the 2025 Swedish train timetable. Metronom is a new and innovative tool that uses outcome data as a basis for planning. By understanding how plans function in reality, significant benefits and savings can be achieved.
Digital Tvilling is proud that The Swedish Transport Administration has decided to begin using the Metronom application for the railway. With Metronom, The Swedish Transport Administration can now combine methods and data, enabling the use of historical outcome data as a foundation for the planning of train schedules and train slots.
"By understanding how trains actually run, and don't run, compared to the plans, we can bring plans and reality closer together. Through small adjustments, we can save immense resources. With better timetables and traffic planning, it’s possible to increase punctuality – and free up capacity – without time-consuming rebuilds. We can simply use the existing infrastructure and resources in a much more efficient way. The Metronom data model and architecture are designed to function not only within Sweden but also internationally, making the solution adaptable to other countries." says Filip Åsblom, CTO at Digital Tvilling.
“With better timetables and traffic execution, it’s possible to increase punctuality – and free up capacity – without time-consuming rebuilds. We can simply use the existing infrastructure and resources in a much more efficient way”
Metronom is both a method and an application developed by Digital Tvilling that helps organizations better understand actual lead times and their variations. This is used as a basis for analysis, decision-making, planning, and improvements. For the railway, this means that The Swedish Transport Administration can now design timetables based on the actual performance of the railway system. By basing future planned travel times between two locations on actual outcomes, increased punctuality is possible. A more operable plan leads to improved punctuality, which in turn drives both capacity and demand.
Digital Tvilling AB is a Swedish company, founded in 2020, specializing in the creation of digital twins for complex operations. We provide cutting-edge solutions and services to both the private and public sectors. Our innovative platform helps organizations make more informed decisions by visualizing and optimizing flows and key processes across a wide range of industries, from manufacturing and transportation to government services.
The implementation of Metronom for the railway has been carried out in close collaboration with the industry organization TTT (Tillsammans för Tåg i Tid, in English Together for Trains on Time). The potential of Metronom is considered significant.
"In our work with Metronom, we have seen everything: trains that are systematically too early, too late, well-coordinated, and highly dispersed. All of this affects both punctuality and capacity. Our assessment, after discussions with the industry, is that small corrections can improve punctuality by a few percentage points, which would provide significant societal benefits – estimated to be around one billion kronor according to external experts, in addition to the direct benefits for each completed train journey and freight transport," explains Niklas Post, CEO of Digital Tvilling.
The pilot will run during the autumn of 2025 with the ambition of learning and gathering experiences ahead of the 2026 timetable.
Metronom represents the next step in the development of digital twins for the railway sector. We look forward to continuing this work and contributing to a more sustainable and efficient future for Sweden's railway system.
For more information or to discuss how Metronom can assist your organization, do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.