The TOPS and POIS Replacement Project is required to deliver a solution to replace in-use
functionality of the existing application under the adoption of modern technologies, thus avoiding
innovation limitation, technical debt, operational risk and extended support agreements for these
two mission critical services.
TOPS is a mainframe system procured by British Rail (BR) from Southern Pacific in the early 1970s. It
is a complex, command-driven system, originally designed for the management and control of
freight vehicles and trains to provide real-time information of the whereabouts, loading, consignee,
condition, etc. of freight vehicles. Since the introduction of TOPS to BR, the system has been
expanded to handle locomotive activities and information about loco-hauled passenger operations,
via a sub-system named POIS. The average freight traffic is currently 500 trains per day but may
increase going forward.