Transportation Planning Manager - Railway Operations and Infrastructure

Transportation Planning Manager

Position Overview

The Transportation Planning Manager leads railway planning activities covering demand assessment, operations planning, capacity evaluation, and integration of operational requirements into railway design. The role ensures that infrastructure and system designs fully support safe, efficient, and reliable train operations throughout the project lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

1. Railway Planning & Demand Assessment

• Conduct corridor planning, demand forecasting, ridership analysis, and future growth assessment for passenger or freight rail.

• Evaluate service requirements based on demand, operational constraints, and network characteristics.

2. Rail Operations Planning

• Develop operational concepts including stopping patterns, headways, running times, and timetable structures.

• Assess rolling stock performance, turnaround strategies, and recovery allowances.

• Validate operational feasibility during phased implementation (construction, trial, regular operations).

3. Infrastructure & Capacity Analysis

• Analyse line, station, and yard capacity considering signaling (ETCS/ATP/CBTC), dwell times, gradients, and speed profiles.

• Define requirements such as loops, crossovers, sidings, turnback facilities, platform lengths, and depot capacities.

• Identify constraints and recommend operational or infrastructure enhancements.

4. Design Integration

• Provide operations-driven inputs to alignment, track, stations, bridges, traction power, and OHE/OCS design teams.

• Review engineering designs to ensure compatibility with operational headways, speed profiles, and safety requirements.

• Support preparation of ConOps, System Requirements, and operational planning reports.

5. Stakeholder Coordination

• Coordinate with railway authorities, operators, regulators, and multidisciplinary engineering teams.

• Support approval processes, technical meetings, and presentations.

• Consolidate feedback from operators, maintenance teams, and safety engineers into planning documents.

6. Safety & Standards Compliance

• Ensure adherence to international and national rail standards (UIC, EN, AREMA, IRS, local rail guidelines).

• Integrate RAMS, operational safety margins, and emergency evacuation considerations within planning.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering, or related discipline.

• 10–18 years of proven railway planning or operations planning experience.

• Strong background in rail design interfaces, operations modelling, and system performance analysis.

• Experience with railway modelling tools (OpenTrack, or similar)

Skills & Competencies

Technical

• Deep understanding of railway systems, operations, signalling, rolling stock performance, and station operations.

• Capability in timetable planning, capacity evaluation, and simulation analysis.

• Strong analytical and documentation skills.

Behavioural

• Effective communicator with strong coordination skills.

• Ability to lead cross-functional design discussions and produce clear technical reports, methodologies.