PRINOS switched on: New control and information system of Bremenports Railway has commenced operations

First in Bremen, then in individual stages and test phases in parallel operation also in Bremerhaven and now throughout the entire state of Bremen: PRINOS (Port Railway Information and Operation System), the operating system developed specifically for the Bremische Hafeneisenbahn, now controls all traffic on the port railway’s infrastructure comprising approximately 200 kilometers of track in Bremen and Bremerhaven.

The new PRINOS has clear advantages over the previous control of the port railway, which was mainly characterized by the exchange of Excel files and coordination via telephone or email. “With PRINOS, a customer portal was simultaneously activated: there, for example, railway companies can see in real time where their trains and individual wagons are located. Delays, changes to the schedule or changes to terminal slots are communicated directly through the system. Shunting service providers coordinate planned shunting movements with the crew at the terminals. This also makes work easier there and makes the transshipment more plannable,” reports bremenports CEO Robert Howe.

Marco Molitor, board member of dbh Logistics IT AG, which developed the new program on behalf of the Bremische Hafeneisenbahn, emphasizes: “Software development was actually a real collaborative project – without the feedback and discussion of the needs of all those involved in the port railway, we would not have been able to develop the solution so successfully. I can therefore only thank everyone for their full participation and am equally pleased that we were able to contribute our part to the digitalization of the Bremische Hafeneisenbahn.”

“For us – and I believe I can also speak for our other colleagues on the track – PRINOS truly marks a new era in the stations of the Bremische Hafeneisenbahn,” emphasizes Thomas Rohn of Eisenbahnen und Verkehrsbetriebe Elbe-Weser GmbH (evb) and adds: “The much simpler data exchange and the resulting significantly improved possibilities for coordinating the business processes of all parties involved ensure greater efficiency and even better utilization of the existing infrastructure. Of course, the changeover was initially strenuous and a lot of work for everyone – but already today we can see: this work was worth it.”

PRINOS will support the Bremische Hafeneisenbahn in capacity planning, disposition and fee billing. A significant innovation is interfaces to the systems of DB InfraGO AG, which are used to retrieve schedules and train reports such as delays, and on the other hand the aforementioned customer portal, which involves railway transport companies, shunting service providers and terminal operators in the information flow of port railway operations. Terminals receive the ability to coordinate planned loading times with the port railway, view the status of trains scheduled for them and report the status of loading and unloading. The overall increased data transparency ultimately enables significantly improved planning and optimization of the business processes of all parties involved. Furthermore, PRINOS includes interfaces to the CODIS system, with which the Bremerhaven container terminals handle all required cargo data around rail handling.

And one thing is already certain: PRINOS will be continuously further developed: “Currently, PRINOS is being supplemented with a statistics module and a graphical track diagram, and in the future that will certainly not be the only change or addition to the program,” is confident Daniel Becker, IT expert at bremenports. Some perspectives are already the subject of the recently published Smartport strategy for the Bremen ports.

Media contact:
Matthias Koch, Press Spokesperson at bremenports
Tel.: +49 471 30901-103
E-mail: matthias.koch@bremenports.de

Gerrit Naß, Team Leader Marketing dbh Logistics IT AG
Telephone: +49 421 30902-103
E-mail: presse@dbh.de