Applicability of the analytical UIC Code 406 compression method for evaluating line and station capacity

Firstly, this article summarizes the main contents of UIC Code 406 with its compression method. In this context, not only some problems during the method application, but also possibilities to solve them are described. One concrete example will show a typical timetable situation on a specific infrastructure featuring less station than line capacity. In this case, node capacity determines the maximum capacity of the whole infrastructure. This demonstrates the importance of evaluating the line capacity outside station areas as well as station infrastructure itself. Furthermore, also the necessity of doing capacity evaluations for an infrastructure extract containing a constant number of trains is described. Based on this aspect the paper explains, why the occupancy rate cannot provide a significant parameter for node station capacity and that UIC Code 406 method cannot be applied for node capacity research.