WebGIS for Public Communication on Railway Maintenance

Albert van Kempen, Sweco

Genevieve Mazairac, ProRail

ProRail is a government organisation that takes care of

extensions and maintenance of the Dutch railway network

infrastructure.

Objective..

Before starting maintenance activities, ProRail informs the residents about

potential nuisances.

7_Slijptrein.mp4

Communication until recently..

• Yearly up to 800.000 paper letters had to be sent to residents that live

within 300 meters of the planned maintenance work

• Difficult to inform the residents at the last minute when planning has been

changed

• High costs and “static” information

Last year..

• A pilot throughout the province of Utrecht to inform residents via mail

alerts and a WebGIS

• Target group of 23.000 households

• Pilot in cooperation with contractors that work for ProRail

The pilot..

• Residents were informed about the pilot via mail, social media and local

newspapers

• About 2.100 residents signed up to receive mail alerts

• The mail alert contains a hyperlink to the WebGIS based on GeoWeb and

ArcGIS for Server

Set up..

Contractors Communication dep. Residents

Why GeoWeb?

++ It is a standard product within the ProRail

organisation

++ Use of Workflows -> more flexibility

++ One site -> more specific viewers for different

workprocesses

++ WebGIS keeps running when ESRI API changes

1

Step 1 Contractor:

- Enters information on maintenance activities,

periods, closed railway crossings, supply

routes, project information, etc.

- Updates the information in case of changes

1

2

Step 2 ProRail’s Communication department:

- Checks information entered by contractors

- Adds general information and pictures & videos

1

2

3

Step 3 Residents:

- Receive mail alerts

ExampleGeachte heer, mevrouw,

Let op, er zijn binnenkort werkzaamheden aan het spoor bij u in de

buurt.

Onder deze link treft u hier meer informatie over aan.

Heeft u vragen? Neem contact op met het team Publiekscontacten via

0800-776 72 45 (gratis) of www.prorail.nl/contact.

Met vriendelijke groeten,

Wieneke Buurman,

Directeur Communicatie ProRail

Voor afmelden van deze service: klik hier.

Conclusions..

• The pilot was successful and the project will be extended for the whole

country:

• Cost-effective

• Central database

• Information is up to date

• Suitable for all devices: smartphone, tablet and PC (HTML5)

• Information is visual to user: map, videos and pictures

• Good overview of all maintenance activities

Next steps..

• More focus on the WebGIS on the smartphone (95% of mail alerts is read

on smartphone!)

• Improvement of tooling in GeoWeb for contractors to enter and update

information

• Integration with the CRM

• Variable distances for different activities

• Etc.

WebGIS for public communication on railway maintenance:

https://www.prorail.nl/omwonenden/kaart-spoorwerkzaamheden-regio-utrecht

More information:

albert.vankempen@sweco.nl

http://geoweb.software/