Kestrel in Action

Northern covers 3,180 km of track across 468 stations, from the Peak District to the Scottish borders and from the Lake District to Humberside. Its fleet includes over 300 trains, and the network serves millions of passengers daily across one of the most geographically diverse rail systems in the UK.

What's unique?

Northern use Kestrel as a repository for not only Performance and Capacity data, but also Train Crew and Rolling Stock diagrams and most recently, Safety. Using a number of APIs, the data is pulled into a data lake for use by their BI team.

Northern were also the first users of Kestrel to store evidence against an incident, in the form of documents, photos and video to help with the resolution of an incident either internally or with Network Rail.

ScotRail is Scotland's lifeline: 355 stations scattered across a network that stretches from the Highlands and Islands down to Carlisle, carrying over 333 million passengers a year. Its fleet includes over 350 electric, diesel and hybrid trains, and its remote rural routes are among the most spectacular passenger railways in Europe.

What's unique?

The results from analysing Reactionary Delay each year have helped ScotRail improve the management of the timetable during leaf fall season.

Melbourne's iconic tram network is the largest in the world: 250 km of double track and more than 520 trams across nine classes weaving through the city's streets. With 207 million passenger trips a year, it is not just Melbourne's most iconic transport mode, but also one of the most heavily used tram systems on the planet.

The Elizabeth Line is one of the biggest railway projects ever built: 117 km of track including 21 km of new deep-level tunnels running beneath London, from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east. With 41 stations and 243 million passenger journeys a year, it is among the busiest urban rail lines on Earth.

What's unique?

The complexity of the data sources; this varies from legacy systems outside of the tunnel section through to state of the art messages sent from the Siemens signalling system. These messages form the basis for a bespoke real-time Delay Attribution function that sits within the National framework. Kestrel allows the user to then link the incidents created within the application with those that are created on the national infrastructure.

Rail Operations Group is one of the UK's fastest-growing independent rail freight companies, based in Derby. ROG moves new and refurbished trains between factories, ports and depots across the entire UK rail network, keeping rolling stock moving while others are being built, overhauled or retired.

London Overground is an orbital network: six lines circling Greater London and into Hertfordshire, serving 113 stations with 189 million passengers a year. Its colourful lines form a ring around the capital, connecting communities that the Underground never reached and providing a vital link for thousands of daily commuters.

What's unique?

This version of Kestrel consumes data from a variety of sources, such as the traditional legacy applications, along with real time punctuality data from Darwin, disruption and short-formation alerts from Tyrell (in the form of e-mails). Management of the Concession Agreement and calculation of the TfL Journey Time measure are specific to this version.

West Midlands Railway serves 178 stations across a 539-mile network radiating from Birmingham, one of the busiest railway junctions in the world. Its services stretch to the East Midlands, North West, South East and East of England, carrying millions of passengers daily on the UK's most centrally located franchise.

What's unique?

Real-time incident management (which is shared with Network Rail) and a Fleet Module, which captures additional attributes associated with vehicle defects are what sets this version of Kestrel apart from the others.