Railway safety requires precision, consistency, and compliance at scale. Learn how we helped RATP Group design and build a custom application that streamlined workflows, strengthened compliance, and prepared operations for the future.
Challenges and Context: Streamlining Signaling Operations
RATP Group is one of the world’s leading public transport operators, running services in 15 countries with over 71,000 employees and more than 3.3 billion journeys per year in Île-de-France. As the historical operator of the Paris metro, it carries the responsibility of maintaining both passenger mobility and the integrity of its signaling systems.
The existing processes used to create and manage Signaling Functional Programs (PFS) and Signaling Technical Documents (PTS) could be improved by creating one and unique document DRS.
The main challenges included:
• Dispersed data sources made documentation consistency difficult to maintain.
• Unstructured reporting by email slowed down.
• Sequential workflows created bottlenecks in verification and validation.
For an engineering of RATP’s size, these issues had direct consequences on operational efficiency. To overcome them, RATP partnered with us to design and develop a dedicated application supporting its railway safety process.
Our Approach: Custom Application Development
We worked closely with our client to develop an application that mirrored the complexity of signaling workflows while ensuring ease of use. The project progressed in several stages to ensure the final solution was compliant and sustainable:
1. Understanding user needs
The project began with interviews and workshops involving study officers and key stakeholders. By observing how DRS were created, validated, and used, we identified recurring pain points and built a functional model aligned with real operational practices.
2. Building the user story backlog
Each business need was formalized as a user story describing concrete actions such as producing, consulting, or validating a DRS. This structured backlog provided a clear project roadmap, keeping business rules and user experience central to every decision.
3. Designing the UX/UI
Given the technical nature of signaling, the interface had to remain clear and practical. Our design team developed a structured experience that simplified complex tasks, ensuring that study officers could adopt the application quickly with minimal training.
4. Developing the application
The joint teams in Paris and Brussels built the tool to support the full safety process defined by RATP safety documents – drafting, verification, cross-checking, timing, and implementation. The architecture centralized DRS production while allowing multiple user profiles to collaborate, ensuring both flexibility and compliance.
5. Ensuring long-term adaptability
The project was structured in two phases:
• 2020–2025: development and initial maintenance
• 2025–2030: corrective and evolutionary maintenance.
This phased approach ensures that the application continues to evolve with future regulatory and operational changes, providing long-term value for RATP.
Benefits
By introducing this new application, RATP achieved tangible results:
- Centralized DRS management: documentation is now consistent and aligned before being transmitted to project managers.
- Standardized reporting: clear frameworks make verification faster and more reliable.
- Optimized preparation times: concurrent activities shorten delays and improve workflow efficiency.
Beyond the solution itself, RATP also gained a long-term partner, with a dedicated team of specialists ensuring continuity and support until 2030.
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