Editorial

Dear readers

We are delighted to present a selection of activities that have shaped SMA over the past year. They demonstrate our commitment to developing high-quality services and solutions that empower our customers and contribute to a more efficient and sustainable railway system.

This year, instead of an editorial we have opted for an interview format. It highlights why integrated capacity planning is of central importance for the railway: operations and infrastructure development must be planned jointly at an early stage, systematically and with a focus on robustness. By combining specialist consultancy and software expertise, SMA lays the foundation for translating regulatory requirements into robust processes and efficient systems.

In addition to our traditional consulting projects, this year we are also featuring an article from our software department. It highlights how timetable data is transformed into a sound basis for decision-making: open interfaces, the growing Python expertise within the Viriato user community, and the targeted use of AI-supported programming in external tools significantly shorten the path from data extraction to analysis. Algorithmic extensions can be integrated directly into the planning workflow via the Viriato algorithm platform. Viriato thus serves as an environment for consistent data management, informative visualisations and the increasing automation of complex planning and optimisation tasks.

Thank you very much for your interest and trust.

We wish you an enjoyable read of our 2025 annual report.

Eric Cosandey
CEO, Head of Consulting

Björn Glaus
Head of Software