TAPAS — Delivering near real time analysis of in service “black box” OTMR data

Mandatory installation of on train monitoring recorders (OTMR) provides an opportunity to gather valuable train fleet information. The challenge is how best to use it. The train automatic performance analysis system (TAPAS), built by Tessella for Southern and HSBC Rail, is a bespoke software framework in which sophisticated analysis modules are designed, tested and scheduled to run against OTMR data collected in service over WiFi. TAPAS runs completely ´off train´, which allows rapid prototyping and refinement of analysis modules as there is no train deployment phase. Utilising large data sets, TAPAS works inherently using the reality of ´in service´ measurement collected over long periods, not a theoretical picture of how the unit should behave. Delivering performance information directly to a web enabled fleet health status display, southern class 455 reliability has more than doubled since TAPAS came into use in April 2007.