The Solution

RailStaffy is a domain-specific digital operations platform designed for rail freight staffing, qualification-safe dispatch and controlled transport execution.

The platform connects railway undertakings, staff agencies and train drivers within a shared operational environment while embedding qualification checks, safety-management processes, controlled documentation and traceable records directly into day-to-day workflows.

Rather than functioning as a simple staffing marketplace, RailStaffy brings together operational planning, compliance, communication, learning, finance and organisational governance in one integrated platform.

Multi-Role Operational Platform

Rail freight operations involve multiple organisations and user groups with different responsibilities, permissions and compliance requirements.

RailStaffy was designed around these boundaries from the beginning, providing dedicated workflows for:

• Train drivers

• Railway undertakings

• Staff agencies

• Safety and operational roles

• Finance and accounting users

• Platform administrators

Role-specific dashboards and controlled organisation boundaries ensure that each participant works with the information and functionality relevant to their responsibilities.

Qualification-Safe Dispatch

Assigning a train driver requires more than simply checking availability.

Before an assignment can be executed, the responsible organisation may need to verify licences, certificates, route knowledge, rolling-stock competence, working-time requirements and undertaking-specific safety conditions.

RailStaffy integrates these checks directly into the assignment process, helping organisations evaluate driver suitability before operational execution.

Qualification capabilities include

• Licence and certificate management

• Validity tracking and alerts

• Complementary certificate registry

• Route and infrastructure knowledge

• Rolling-stock competence

• Country-specific qualification information

• Working-time related operational controls

• Structured qualification history

This creates a more controlled dispatch workflow while reducing dependency on fragmented spreadsheets, documents and manual verification.

Assignment & Transport Workflows

The platform provides structured workflows for the complete assignment lifecycle.

Suitable assignments and transport offers can be created, discovered and matched across organisations, while users can track active, upcoming and historical assignments through dedicated operational views.

The solution supports:

• Assignment marketplace workflows

• Transport offers and matching

• Applications and shortlists

• Assignment creation

• Dispatch processes

• Check-in, departure, arrival and completion states

• Operational issue handling

• Assignment history and traceability

These workflows create a shared operational context for all involved participants.

Safety Management

Safety processes are embedded directly into normal operational workflows rather than managed as a separate administrative layer.

RailStaffy supports:

• Individual safety briefings

• Repetitive briefings

• Real-time safety information

• Driver feedback

• Controlled safety documentation

• Completion tracking

• Undertaking-specific safety processes

Briefings and safety information can be issued to specific drivers and linked to operational activities, while completion and feedback remain traceable for later review.

This creates a structured connection between operational execution and safety governance.

Route Intelligence & Railway Network Mapping

RailStaffy includes railway-specific geospatial functionality directly inside the operational platform.

The route map integrates railway infrastructure data with platform-owned operational objects such as corridors, stations and assignment-related geography.

This supports:

• Cross-border corridor planning

• Station and route visualization

• Route-knowledge workflows

• Infrastructure-knowledge tracking

• Geographic filtering

• Corridor overlays

• Operational route selection

The platform uses railway geodata as operational context rather than presenting mapping as a separate visualization layer.

Real-Time Communication

Operational coordination often requires immediate communication between drivers, agencies and undertakings.

RailStaffy includes a real-time communication layer supporting conversation history, messages, reactions, read receipts, typing indicators and participant activity.

The architecture uses SignalR for real-time events and can use Redis-backed shared state for multi-instance deployments, allowing the communication layer to scale with the platform.

This keeps communication connected to the underlying operational context instead of relying on disconnected external channels.

Learning & Competency Management

The platform also includes a virtual learning environment for qualification and competency-related activities.

Users can access:

• E-learning courses

• Assigned learning

• Competency checks

• Quizzes

• Completion tracking

• Controlled documents

• Qualification-related training content

This allows learning, competence and operational eligibility to exist within the same governed environment.

Finance & Settlement Workflows

Operational execution is connected with structured financial workflows.

RailStaffy supports incoming and outgoing invoices, payout requests, settlement settings and transaction history, allowing financial administration to remain connected to the broader operational platform.

This reduces the need to maintain separate operational and financial coordination processes.

Security & Governance

Because RailStaffy operates across multiple organisations and operational roles, access control and traceability are core parts of the platform architecture.

The solution includes:

• Two-factor authentication

• Role-based permissions

• Organisation-aware access boundaries

• Sub-account management

• Audit-ready operational records

• Controlled impersonation for administration

• Request rate limiting

• Secure token handling

• Environment-specific configuration

Operational actions can be governed by predefined permissions, checks and approval rules while relevant changes remain structured for later review.

Application Architecture

RailStaffy is built as a modern web application with an Angular frontend and a .NET / ASP.NET Core backend, supported by PostgreSQL for transactional persistence and Redis for shared state and caching.

The backend is organised around bounded business domains so that operational, compliance, finance and administration workflows remain independently maintainable, while the Angular frontend provides role-specific interfaces for drivers, railway undertakings, agencies and specialist operational users.

Key platform technologies include:

• Angular

• .NET / ASP.NET Core Web API

• Entity Framework Core

• PostgreSQL

• Redis

• SignalR

• Hangfire

• JWT-based authentication

• OpenAPI / Swagger

Real-time communication is handled through SignalR, while background processing supports retryable asynchronous workflows such as notifications and email delivery.

Built for Regulated Operations

RailStaffy was designed as an operational platform for an environment where assignments, qualifications, safety processes and organisational responsibilities need to remain structured and traceable.

By combining dispatch, qualification management, safety workflows, controlled documentation, learning, communication and financial processes, the platform replaces fragmented operational coordination with a single governed digital environment.

The result is a system that supports both day-to-day operational efficiency and long-term compliance-oriented traceability.

WebQuest delivered RailStaffy as a domain-specific digital platform demonstrating complex workflow engineering, multi-role governance, compliance-oriented architecture and regulated-industry delivery.