Patent ID: 8774992

Claim:
An operation support device comprising: an intake unit for acquiring automatic train control information that provides information about an occupied track circuit on which a current train is present and information about a stop track circuit of the current train; a track database for retaining a signal aspect table that provides a relation between a preceding train end occupying track circuit and the stop track circuit, related information between track circuits and stations that shows which track circuit corresponds to a station, and an occupied duration at each station; a history retaining unit for holding a history of a preceding train position estimated from the information about the stop track circuit of the current train and from the signal aspect table; a brake pattern determining unit for determining a brake pattern of the current train before reaching the next station from the information about the occupied track circuit on which the current train is present and the information about the stop track circuit of the current train; and a next station state estimating unit for estimating a time at which the preceding train exits the next station, the time indicating a time when the stop track circuit moves forward by at least a track circuit and when the brake pattern changes to another brake pattern that allows a higher speed limit than the brake pattern, from the estimated information about the preceding train position, the information about the occupied track circuit on which the current train is present, the related information between the track circuits and the stations, information about the occupied duration at each station and the history of the preceding train position held in the history retaining unit.