Built for transit engineers
Vehicle dynamics
Acceleration, cruise, coasting and braking with a jerk limit and weather-dependent adhesion (dry, wet, snow, ice). Davis running resistance, gradients, curves, rotary mass and passenger load.
DC traction network
Substations with internal resistance, active or diode rectifiers, overhead-wire and rail-return resistance. A nodal solver gives the pantograph voltage of every tram at once, plus substation current and wire heating.
Energy and regeneration
Consumed, regenerated and net kWh, energy per km and per passenger-km, broken down per segment. Regenerative braking with cut-out speed and voltage limit; friction-brake heat below it.
Timetable and fleet planning
Advanced mode: target running time per segment, time-of-day periods with headway and load, fleet size from headway and headway from fleet, and a space-time (Marey) diagram.
Interactive charts
Speed, acceleration, pantograph voltage, traction and substation current, power, forces and cumulative energy — OxyPlot charts with zoom and pan, and a playback of the run.
Presets, projects and reports
Built-in presets for the Ganz articulated tram and Siemens Combino, more imported from Excel or CSV. Projects saved as files; A4 PDF report and CSV or XLSX data export.
Coming soon
TramDynamics is in active development. Leave your details and we'll notify you at launch.
Notify meFrequently asked questions about the TramDynamics simulator
What is TramDynamics Simulator?
A physics-based simulator for urban trams: it calculates energy consumption, speed profile, pantograph voltage, traction current and overhead-wire heating for one or more trams on a defined route. It is a planning and analysis tool for urban transit, in development, with launch expected in Q2 2027.
Which physical models does it use?
Motion is split into acceleration, cruise, coasting and braking, with a jerk limit and weather-dependent adhesion (dry, wet, snow, ice). Running resistance uses the Davis formula, plus gradients, curves, the rotary mass factor and passenger mass. The calculation runs every 2 metres of track.
Does it model the DC traction network and substations?
Yes. Substations have internal resistance and active or diode rectifiers (including 6-pulse), and the overhead wire and the return rail have their own resistance per kilometre. A DC nodal solver calculates the pantograph voltage of every tram on the line at once, and the current of each substation, while a thermal model follows the heating of the overhead wire. The supply voltage is configurable (600 V by default).
Does it calculate regenerative braking and energy per kilometre?
Yes: consumed, regenerated and net energy in kWh, energy per kilometre and per passenger-kilometre, broken down per segment. Regenerative braking has an efficiency, a cut-out speed and a voltage limit, and below the cut-out speed the heat dissipated in the friction brakes is calculated.
Can it plan the timetable and size the fleet?
Yes, in Advanced mode: for a target time on each segment it calculates the required speed, works by periods of the day (morning peak, off-peak, evening peak, night) with headway and load factor, and sizes the fleet from the headway or the headway from the fleet, with a space-time (Marey) diagram. Advanced mode does not yet include the substation network.
Which trams are included, and what can it export?
Presets are included for the Ganz articulated tram (Ganz-Csuklós) and for Siemens Combino; other vehicles are imported from Excel or CSV. Results export to an A4 PDF report, data to CSV or XLSX, and projects are saved as files. It runs on Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit; the interface is in English and Hungarian.