Web App Timetable

Mazovian Railways is one of the largest and busiest regional railway operators in Poland, serving a high volume of passengers across the region.

Since 2018, the collaboration has focused on maintaining and evolving critical digital infrastructure supporting passenger communication, including the launch of a new system in 2022 designed for long-term scalability and reliability.

Railway timetable systems operate in a highly dynamic environment where data changes constantly and must be reflected immediately to passengers.

At the same time, the platform must remain available under heavy traffic conditions, especially during disruptions such as delays, repairs, or service changes, when demand for information increases significantly.

Ensuring continuous availability while keeping data accurate and up to date required more than standard infrastructure. The system had to handle high concurrency, remain resilient to failures, and minimize the risk of data loss, all while supporting ongoing updates and maintenance without disrupting service.

To meet operational requirements, the platform needed to:

• maintain high availability under peak traffic conditions
• support real-time timetable updates
• ensure data redundancy and protection across locations
• minimize downtime during failures or maintenance
• enable safe deployment of updates and new features

The goal was to create a system that passengers could rely on at any time, regardless of external conditions.

A high-availability infrastructure was implemented to ensure continuous operation and resilience under load, combining load balancing with a clustered architecture to distribute traffic and prevent single points of failure. Data protection was strengthened through distributed backups stored in multiple locations, reducing the risk of data loss and improving recovery capabilities.

At the same time, monitoring and support processes were enhanced to provide faster response to incidents, while dedicated communication channels ensured that issues could be reported and resolved efficiently. The platform was also modernized to support long-term development, allowing new features and updates to be introduced without compromising system stability.

Technology stack:

• PHP for backend application logic
• SQL for data management
• Red Hat (Linux) for system infrastructure
• VMware (High Availability) for resilient environments
• Nginx for load balancing and traffic management

Traffic is distributed across the system using load balancing, ensuring that no single component becomes a bottleneck, even during peak usage. The high-availability cluster maintains system continuity in case of failures, automatically handling disruptions without impacting users.

Continuous monitoring tracks system performance and availability, enabling proactive issue detection and faster resolution. Dedicated test environments allow changes to be validated before deployment, reducing the risk of errors and ensuring compatibility with the existing system.

The improved infrastructure significantly increased system stability and performance, allowing the platform to handle large volumes of users while maintaining responsiveness. Real-time updates are now delivered more reliably, ensuring that passengers have access to accurate information when they need it most.

At the same time, operational processes became more efficient, with better monitoring, faster issue resolution, and safer deployment of updates.

The platform delivered measurable improvements across key areas:

• High system availability, even during peak traffic and disruptions
• Improved performance, supporting large numbers of concurrent users
• Reliable real-time updates, enhancing passenger experience
• Reduced risk of data loss, through distributed backups
• Safer deployments, enabled by dedicated testing environments
• Future-ready architecture, supporting long-term development

The solution continues to evolve through ongoing optimization and development, supporting new features and improving performance over time. The long-term collaboration enables continuous adaptation to changing operational needs, ensuring that the system remains reliable, scalable, and aligned with passenger expectations.

How does a railway timetable system stay online when passenger demand spikes during disruptions?

Load balancing distributes traffic so no single component becomes a bottleneck, and a high-availability cluster handles failures without impacting users. In this project, InTechHouse used Nginx for load balancing and VMware High Availability on Red Hat Linux for Mazovian Railways, so the platform keeps high availability even during peak traffic and disruptions.

How can updates be deployed to a live railway timetable app without disrupting passengers?

Dedicated test environments let changes be validated before deployment, which reduces the risk of errors and keeps compatibility with the existing system. In this project, InTechHouse modernized the Mazovian Railways platform so new features and updates can be introduced without compromising system stability, supported by dedicated communication channels for reporting incidents.

How is data loss risk reduced in a high-traffic railway timetable platform?

Distributed backups stored in multiple locations reduce the risk of data loss and improve recovery capabilities. In this project, InTechHouse strengthened data protection for Mazovian Railways this way, alongside SQL data management and PHP backend logic, meeting the requirement for data redundancy and protection across locations.