photo: RAILTARGET/Arcadis Mobility Germany, IB&T Software and SIGNON Deutschland presenting at InnoTrans 2026, Berlin, Germany
Rail infrastructure planning is becoming increasingly digital, but that does not mean every engineer has to work in the same software. At InnoTrans 2026, Arcadis Mobility Germany, IB&T Software and SIGNON Deutschland showed how three established planning tools can exchange data and work together on the same railway project.
Railway renewal projects bring together many disciplines at once: track, signalling, overhead lines and other infrastructure all have to fit within the same physical space.
At InnoTrans 2026, Arcadis Mobility Germany, IB&T Software and SIGNON Deutschland presented a practical approach to making that coordination easier. Instead of replacing specialist software with one all-purpose system, their idea is to connect the tools engineers already use. The presentation focused on three solutions: card_1, ProSig® and SIGNON OLAcad®.
Three Specialist Tools, One Railway Planning Workflow
The main topic was interoperability. Each of the three applications covers a different part of railway infrastructure planning to allow relevant data to pass between them without repeatedly rebuilding the same information, which is useful on major corridor renewal projects, where signalling, track and overhead-line design have to be coordinated closely.
The software itself is already established. What the companies wanted to demonstrate at InnoTrans was how those existing tools can become part of a more connected digital workflow.
ProSig Data Moves from 2D Planning into a 3D Model
The demonstration started with ProSig®, which was used to plan signalling infrastructure such as signals, masts and related components. That data could then be transferred into another planning environment and viewed in both 2D and 3D.
The companies used IFC, or Industry Foundation Classes, to exchange model information between the systems. Once the signalling data was brought into the 3D environment, planners could see how it interacted spatially with other railway infrastructure. That made it possible to check, for example, whether signalling equipment had enough clearance from the overhead line.
A 0.90-Metre Clearance Revealed a Design Conflict
The example shown at InnoTrans made the benefit of that exchange very specific. Once signalling and overhead-line elements were viewed together, planners identified a clearance of around 0.90 metres between components. Based on the clearance requirement discussed during the presentation, the conventional arrangement would not have worked, so they needed an insulated catenary solution.
Spotting the problem in a 3D model was not the only useful part. The information could be taken back into the specialist overhead-line planning environment, where the design could be changed. The revised model could then be exported again and used by the other disciplines.
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Digital Planning Does Not Mean One Software for Everything
A common digital model does not necessarily require every engineer to abandon specialist software and move into one platform. Instead, standardised interfaces can allow different applications to keep doing what they do best while exchanging the information other disciplines actually need.
For large railway projects, that can reduce manual data transfers and make conflicts visible earlier, before they reach the construction stage. It also creates a clearer route for bringing specialist engineering data into wider BIM and 3D environments.
The cooperation between Arcadis Mobility Germany, IB&T Software and SIGNON Deutschland is less about launching another standalone digital product and more about connecting what already exists. Track designers, signalling engineers and overhead-line planners can continue working in dedicated tools, while selected data flows between them as the project develops.
For increasingly complex railway renewals, that kind of coordination could become just as important as the individual software itself.