The future of rail is intelligent: rapid data collection and exchange are key.

The world is moving towards increasingly dynamic transportation systems, which respond and adapt to changing needs, eventually in real-time. To unlock this capability and to optimise rail services, it is necessary to ensure that different transportation systems can communicate with each other. Data exchange for smart railway systems currently requires laborious manual data input, wasting resources and introducing errors.

RailDax (Railway Data Exchange), ISO/TS 4398, is to become the standardised language for railway operators at every stage of railway service planning (conceptual, strategic and tactical). It presents an open, XML-based data format that allows data exchange between different applications: connecting information about infrastructure, rolling stock and the timetable basics necessary for capacity management and timetable planning. It is designed to enable efficient, more accurate and less ambiguous data exchange.

RailDax was developed in parallel with the data exchange language railML 2.5 (railway Markup Language 2.5), which is managed by railML.org. The intention of the standard is to be widely adopted by railway and transportation authorities, infrastructure managers, train operators, and rollingstock companies, making it easier for different railway organisations to work together, and making transportation systems smarter and more efficient.