In 2002, the data warehouse became a critical component of TOP.
Norfolk Southern built a TOP dashboard application that pulls data from the data warehouse and then graphically depicts actual performance against the trip plan for both train performance and connection performance.
The application uses visualization technology so that field managers can more easily interpret the large volumes of data (e.g., there were 160,000 weekly connections across the network).
The number of missed connections has decreased by 60 percent since the application was implemented. And, in the past 5 years, railcar cycle time has decreased by an entire day, which translates into millions of dollars in annual savings.