Five processes for traffic control

Five major processes underlie traffic control: national schedule planning, automatic routing, regional dispatching, semi-automatic routing, and the direct use of the interlocking plant.

The five processes underlying traffic control can be distiguished by their level of detail and time horizon.

	Time horizon
	Planning for coming days, weeks, months	Planning and coordination of today's traffic
Level of detail
High	1. Schedule planning at national level	3. Dispatching decisions at the Zurich regional center - and the two other SBB centers in Lausanne and Luzern - for the coordination of today's traffic, especially concerning late or special trains.
Middle	2. Automatic train routing control on basis of train number ("Zugleitsystem"). Some 80% of all train paths are controlled here.	4. Semi-automated setting of train routings using a system (ILTIS) with a mouse-controlled interface (routings for trains are set manually and individually). The Altstetten operators can set routings for individual trains passing through the stations in its remote-control territory.
Low		5. Interlocking plant ("Stellwerk"). Here, an operator at the Altstetten center must enter codes to set up paths for each individual train. The Altstetten operator can view but cannot directly give commands to the interlocking plants at the other stations within its territory.