Railtopomodel and railsystemmodel commonalities and differences

Abstract

This article focuses on comparing two generic data models of railway infrastructure. The first of these models is the RailTopoModel. Although originally created under the patronage of the UIC, in recent years, its development has been carried out in close coordination with the development of the railML exchange data format. The second model is the RailSystemModel. In fact, it is an extension of the original UIC RailTopoModel specifications to include some substantive aspects of the description of railway infrastructure and its surroundings. It remains under the management of the International Union of Railways (UIC). The versions compared are RailTopoModel 1.5 (released together with railML 3.3) and RailSystemModel 1.2 (the only stable version of RailSystemModel so far). The focus is on aspects that appear in both data models simultaneously, expressed in each case in a different way, rather than on aspects that have been added to each of the data models.