Diego Chipolito
Co-founder · Rail engineering & software- Civil engineer, specialised in transport.
- Railway signalling engineer on European projects.
- Experience at the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA).
- Designs and builds Haulio and Vigila AI.
OptiVlak d.o.o. · Maribor, Slovenia
Railway signalling engineers who also build the software.
We review and test signalling, we are building AI to predict interlocking failures, and we help freight move by rail where it pays. Small team, senior people, fixed scope.
- CENELEC EN 50126/8/9
- ETCS / ERTMS
- Interlocking review
- Predictive maintenance
- Intermodal
- eFTI
- AI
Signalling, visualised
Routes, trains and signals: the logic we check every day
A simulated control-centre screen of a small station. The same rules we verify in your control tables decide what lights up here.
- Route set
Green: the route is locked for a train. White: a shunting route into the siding.
- Occupancy
Red: a train occupies the section. Sections release one by one behind its tail.
- Signals
A signal clears only once its route is locked, and returns to red as the train passes it.
- Simulation, not live data
What are you trying to solve?
Independent review of your railway signalling design
Design errors found during site testing cost weeks of possessions. Found on paper, they cost an afternoon. We review designs before they reach the assessor and support testing and commissioning.
What we check
- Control tables against the track layout: routes, conflicting routes, overlaps and flank protection.
- Signal positions against braking distances, sighting and line speed.
- Interfaces with level crossings, neighbouring interlockings and the control centre.
- Cable and circuit plans against the logic and the equipment lists.
- Test specifications and their coverage of every route and failure mode.
Where we can help
- Design review, independent of the supplier.
- Testing and commissioning: test plans and acceptance tests (FAT/SAT). Remote, or on site by arrangement.
- Tender engineering for suppliers bidding in Slovenia, Croatia and the region.
What you receive
// findings register (extract, example) Illustrative data
| F-014 | HIGH Overlap beyond S3 shorter than required for the line speed. Ref: national rules, overlap section. |
| F-015 | MED Flank protection for W2 missing in route S2 → S4. |
| F-016 | LOW Cable plan sheet 7 uses an old equipment reference. |
Every finding has a severity, the rule it breaks and a proposed fix. Your designer closes them one by one. No 80-page report to dig through.
CENELECEN 50126 / 50128 / 50129
ETCSTSI CCS, ERTMS
4 langsEN · ES · SL · HR
Send us your scope Fixed price per review.
Predictive maintenance for interlockings: we are building Vigila AI to flag a failing point machine weeks ahead
Most interlocking failures announce themselves: a motor that draws more current, a throw that takes longer, a supply that sags. The data is already in your diagnostics, and nobody has time to look at it. Vigila AI is in development. We are looking for a pilot station.
Preventive Throw time +28% in 3 weeks
How it will work
- Connects to interlocking diagnostics, point machines, track circuits, axle counters and power supplies (OPC UA, MQTT, Modbus, SNMP, log files).
- Learns normal for every single asset, not one generic threshold for all.
- Alerts in four levels: information, preventive, imminent, critical. Planned alert channels: SMS, email or Teams.
- Answers questions from your own manuals through a local AI assistant, so a technician on site gets the right procedure.
What it will never do
- Touch safety logic. It reads diagnostics and never sends commands.
- Send your data anywhere. It is designed to run on a server inside your network.
Become our pilot station One station, measured results, then you decide.
Rail or road? Intermodal transport consulting with real prices
Rail is often cheaper and greener. Sometimes the last mile, the terminal cut-off or two departures a week kill the business case. Together with TOP Hrvatin, the forwarder run by our co-founder Jure Hrvatin, which books these loads every week, we compare your lanes with prices from the market.
One lane, two ways Road FTL Rail + truck
Your lane assessment
| Option | Door-to-door | Transit | Departures | CO₂ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Road FTL | € quote | days | daily | kg / load |
| Intermodal (rail + truck) | € quote | days | per week | kg / load |
| Rail wagonload | € quote | days | per week | kg / load |
What we need from you
- Your main lanes: origin, destination and loads per week.
- Cargo and equipment: trailers, containers or swap bodies.
- How flexible your delivery times are.
Why this partnership works
- TOP Hrvatin, run by our co-founder Jure Hrvatin, handles the transport: carriers, terminals and real prices from daily operations.
- OptiVlak brings the rail engineering view and can track every pilot load in Haulio.
- If the numbers work, we run a pilot on one lane before you change anything else.
Send us one lane Koper, Rijeka, Ljubljana, Zagreb and on to Central Europe.
Haulio: transport management software that stops the retyping
A request arrives by email. Someone reads it, finds the client, checks the rates, types the order, creates the transport order and the CMR, and replies. 20 to 30 minutes, every time. Haulio does the reading and the typing. Your planner checks and confirms.
Inbox
orders@example.com
Request: Koper → Graz
Hello, please quote 2 trailers, 24 t, pick-up Koper (12.11.), delivery Graz. Thanks!
Transport order
ClientExample Freight Ltd.
Pick-upKoper
DeliveryGraz
Cargo2 trailers, 24 t
Loading date12.11.
Confirm ✓ CMR generated
What is inside
- Inbox to order. Reads Outlook emails, matches client, stops and cargo, and prices from your rate cards.
- Documents. Transport order and CMR from the confirmed order.
- Client portal. Your client sees the status and downloads the CMR without calling you.
- KPIs. Time to offer, win rate and lost requests per client.
- TIMOCOM. Publish freight offers straight from the order.
Data & security
- Hosted in the EU (Ireland). Each company's data is separated in the database itself, and administrators log in with two-factor authentication.
- Clients never see your costs. Carriers never see your client price or internal notes.
Book a 30-minute demo We run it on one of your real emails.
From the signal box to the loading ramp — one team that speaks rail and code.
Who you will work with
Two founders. No account managers in between.
You talk directly to the people doing the work.
Jure Hrvatin
Co-founder · Transport & intermodal- Runs TOP Hrvatin, a freight forwarder with daily operations across Slovenia, Croatia and Central Europe.
- Leads our transport and intermodal consulting.
- Uses Haulio every day.
Vlak means train in Slovenian and Croatian, and Opti stands for optimal. The name is the brief: make rail, and the freight around it, work better.
Before you write
Questions about our rail consulting and software
Short answers. Ask us anything else directly.
How much does a signalling design review cost?
We quote a fixed price for an agreed scope after a short call, so you know the cost before we start. It depends on the size of the station or line and the documents to review.
Which standards do you work to?
CENELEC EN 50126, 50128 and 50129, TSI CCS and ETCS/ERTMS, plus the national rules of the network and the supplier's design rules.
Will Vigila AI interfere with the interlocking's safety logic?
No. Vigila AI is in development and is designed to only read diagnostic data and logs. It never sends commands, and it runs on a server inside your own network.
Do you work outside Slovenia and Croatia?
Yes. Design reviews and software can be delivered remotely for any European network; on-site testing is focused on the Adriatic–Central Europe corridor.
Where is Haulio's data stored?
On servers in the EU (Ireland). Each company's data is separated in the database itself, and administrators log in with two-factor authentication.
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes, before we see any drawings or data.
Contact
Tell us the problem. We reply with a plan.
The more we know, the more useful our first answer. This is what helps:
- Track layout or station plan
- Control tables and signal plans to review
- The rules that apply (national, supplier)
- Your deadline and the assessor's milestone
- Interlocking type and supplier
- Which diagnostics or logs you can export today
- One station that could be the pilot
- The failures that hurt you most last year
- Origin and destination of your main lanes
- Loads per week and type of cargo
- Trailers, containers or swap bodies
- Your current road price, if you can share it
- Two or three real request emails
- Your rate cards (Excel is fine)
- How many requests you handle per day
- Which email system you use
Email contact@optivlak.eu
Phone +34 695 721 862