Fahrplandienste

Fahrplandienste are the driving duties or service rosters of staff, such as train drivers or bus drivers, that are scheduled to cover services published in a timetable. The term is used in German-speaking public transport to describe how personnel are assigned to operate the scheduled trips and how their work time is organized.

In practice, Fahrplandienste comprise discrete driving blocks and tours derived from the timetable. A driving block starts when a driver takes over a vehicle for a scheduled trip and ends after completing the assigned portion of the service or after connecting legs. Blocks are combined into tours to minimize repositioning and to optimize efficiency. The rosters also include required rest periods and breaks to comply with safety standards and labor regulations.

The creation of Fahrplandienste involves timetable data, staff qualifications, base locations, and depot constraints. Rostering aims to balance workload, minimize unused time and empty trips (deadheading), and ensure legal limits on daily or weekly driving time and mandatory rest. Software supports automatic generation of rosters, which are then reviewed and adjusted by planners to handle vacations, absences, equipment changes, and disruptions.

During operations, Fahrplandienste must adapt to delays or cancellations while preserving service reliability. This can involve reassigning trips, swapping driving duties, or issuing temporary duty changes to crews. The concept is distinct from purely demand-driven or on-demand services, which do not follow fixed timetables, and from other planning stages such as timetable construction or general crew planning.

Overall, Fahrplandienste influence service reliability, safety, and operating costs, acting as the link between published timetables and the personnel who execute them. Some organizations use synonyms like Dienstplan for driving staff or Fahrdienstplanung for the planning activity.