Nankai Electric, Hitachi Start CMOS Annealing Rail Planning System

By IBT Staff Reporter

Published 07/14/26 AT 10:00 PM JST

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Nankai Electric and Hitachi start building an automated rail crew and vehicle planning system using CMOS annealing

Nankai Line testing cuts crew planning from several months to about one week and vehicle planning from about 20 days to several days

Project expands to the Nankai, Airport, Koya and Semboku lines, with operations targeted in fiscal 2027

Nankai Electric Railway and Hitachi use quantum-inspired tech to automate crew and train scheduling. Note: Japanese text in the original image from press release has been translated into English by our editorial team. Nankai Electric Railway

Nankai Electric Railway and Hitachi have started building an automated system to create and evaluate railway crew and vehicle operation plans using Hitachi's CMOS annealing technology, the companies said on July 14.

The system is intended to automate crew assignment planning, which has relied heavily on experienced staff and manual work, as well as vehicle allocation and circulation planning based on train timetables. The companies aim to improve efficiency across operational planning and provide train schedules to passengers in a more timely manner.

Validation work carried out on the Nankai Line in fiscal 2025 showed the system could cut the time needed to prepare crew operation plans from several months to about one week. For vehicle operation planning, the companies confirmed the process could be shortened from about 20 days to several days.

Crew operation planning involves assigning drivers and conductors to hundreds of trains per day while meeting multiple constraints, including working-hour rules under Japan's variable working hour system, break requirements, consideration for meals and sleep, and coordination of reporting, finishing and lodging locations. Vehicle operation planning determines which rolling stock is assigned to which train and how trains are rotated, taking into account factors such as car type, train-set formation requirements, inspection cycles and yard track capacity.

Hitachi's CMOS annealing is a proprietary technology that uses an Ising model, originally devised to explain magnetic properties, to solve combinatorial optimization problems. Unlike quantum computers, it does not require cooling equipment and can operate at room temperature.

Based on the verification results, the two companies will expand the target lines to the Nankai Line, Airport Line, Koya Line and Semboku Line, and proceed with construction of the system on the assumption that work processes will be revised for timetable changes from fiscal 2027 onward. The companies are aiming to begin operations during fiscal 2027.

The system will be cloud-based and will include functions to automatically calculate and visualize evaluation indicators for plans generated through CMOS annealing. Nankai Electric is responsible for defining operational requirements, verification and operational design, and evaluation and adoption in actual operations, while Hitachi is handling optimization and system development, business analysis and modeling support by data scientists, and cloud delivery.

Nankai Electric operates 169.0 kilometers of railway lines linking Osaka's Namba district with Kansai International Airport, Wakayama and Koyasan, a World Heritage site. The railway operator began a new structure after spinning off its rail business in April 2026.

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Nankai Electric, Hitachi Start CMOS Annealing Rail Planning System

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