The railML.org Initiative was founded in early 2001 against the background of the chronic difficulty of connecting different railway IT applications. Its main objective is to enable heterogeneous railway applications to communicate with each other. Today, the connection of various railway software packages is beset with problems. The purpose of the railML.org Initiative has been to find, discuss and present systematic, XML-based solutions for simplified data exchange between railway applications.
Since 2001, on the basis of information on the railML.org website, our project partners have been working on the simplification of data links for information exchange between different computer applications. The result has been the development of the Railway Markup Language - railML® - which delivers a universally applicable data exchange format and is thus making a substantial contribution to this simplification.
railML® is a joint, evolutionary project of railway companies, software and consulting firms, and academic institutions located in a number of countries. The railML® standard is not the product of central bodies. Instead, it has been developing in a work and discussion process among the involved partners. All interested institutions and businesses are invited to contact us and participate in the railML.org Initiative.
One goal of railML® is to designate the totality of all XML schemas that have been written for railway data, including of all the individual formats. Each of these individual formats fulfills the requirements of a particular kind of data exchange.
In contrast to the conventional, problematical exchange of information between different programs, the development of the railML® specification is opening the possibility of comfortable communication on the basis of XML. Given an XML schema and a data file, each program can edit the values of the attributes it works with. This approach dramatically reduces the number of interfaces. The advantage of such XML documents lies in their description of contents and structure.
railML® is not a “completed” or static description language, but instead is in constant further development. To date, the initial stones have been laid for railML® in the form of subschemas for timetables, railway infrastructure and rolling stock.
Our experts are currently working on consolidation and extension into the areas of, rostering for vehicles and personnel, and train-control technology.
Look at the railML-website and choose "Introduction".
The website is translated in some other languages, e. g. German and French. Choose your preferred language, starting with http://www.railml.org/
For current development, please look at Sharing Development for more information.
This page is maintained by railML coordinators.