Driving safer rail operations, one data point at a time.
Deutsche Bahn is Germany’s national railway operator and one of Europe’s largest mobility and logistics companies, serving millions of passengers every day. DB Fernverkehr, its long-distance passenger division, operates high-speed ICE trains across an extensive network where safety, reliability, and on-time performance are paramount.
Product video
To demonstrate the potential of our solution, we developed a Proof of Concept dashboard that offers a first look at what the final product could deliver. This interactive prototype visualizes key functionalities, data flows, and alert mechanisms, giving a tangible impression of how the system could support train operators in real time.
The challenge
Every year, Germany’s Federal Railway Accident Investigation Board (BEU) records hundreds of SPAD incidents. Signal Passed at Danger events, where a train crosses a stop signal without authorization. These incidents are growing at a rate of approximately +3% per year, disrupting operations, generating significant follow-up costs, and, most critically, creating real safety risks for passengers and crew alike.
Today’s primary technical safeguard, the PZB (Punktförmige Zugbeeinflussung) system, only intervenes after a driver has missed a signal by which point precious seconds and meters have already been lost. The gap in protection lies upstream: in the critical seconds before the signal, where human perception alone stands between a routine journey and a dangerous incident.
The question DB Fernverkehr posed was clear: what if we could warn the driver before the problem occurs?
Our solution
Sentigrate was engaged by DB Fernverkehr to investigate the feasibility of a complementary, software-driven early warning system one that supports train drivers with real-time, continuous feedback as they approach stop signals, without requiring new hardware or infrastructure.
The concept is straightforward: use the data already flowing through the train’s onboard systems to calculate, at every moment, how close the train is to the end of its movement authority and alert the driver when thresholds are crossed.
The system translates three live data streams into actionable warnings:
• Train position: GPS signal data (sampled approximately every 10 seconds, with adaptive potential at 2.8s intervals)
• Planned route: timetable and Buchfahrplan data
• Movement authority: real-time UIC 2801 telegrams (Einfahrzugstraßen) identifying where the train is authorized to travel
