Passage Tool

Passage Tool is a Rhine passage planning support tool for inland vessels operating between Basel and Amsterdam. It brings route-relevant information into one dashboard so a captain or officer can quickly review bridge clearance, water levels, available water depth, lock status, navigation notices and ETA planning before or during a passage.

The tool is designed as an operational overview, not as an official navigation system. It helps structure checks that are normally spread across several portals, tables and notices.

The dashboard checks bridge clearance margins, route water levels, calculated or official available clearance where available, shallow water risk, lock restrictions, closed or restricted lock chambers, route-relevant notices and ETA / position information.

The individual tabs give more detail: Bridges focuses on air draft and bridge margin, Water focuses on gauges and water surplus, Locks shows chamber status, Notices lists route-relevant warnings, ETA supports arrival planning and History shows automatic daily snapshots.

Passage Tool is intended for inland vessel captains, nautical officers, planners and shipping operators working on the Rhine inland navigation corridor. It is especially useful when a voyage plan needs a fast overview of current route constraints from Basel to Amsterdam or Amsterdam to Basel.

The interface is built for repeated checks during operational planning: first dashboard overview, then deeper review of bridges, water, locks, notices or ETA when something looks limiting.

Coverage is focused on the Rhine inland navigation route from Basel to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Basel. The selected direction changes route context, target port, route order and the interpretation of objects along the corridor.

The tool is not a general European waterway planner. It is currently tailored to this Rhine corridor and the route objects, gauges, bridges, locks and notices relevant to that passage.

The header search is a quick route-km finder. You can search cities and towns, route points, ports, gauges, locks, bridges, canal or river landmarks and selected caution points from the Rhine learning navigator and the Passage Tool route data.

Selecting a result writes its route kilometre into the manual position field. The dashboard, nearest-object card, Locks, ETA and route checks then use that kilometre as the current planning position.

Passage Tool combines operational route information from sources such as EuRIS, ELWIS, PegelOnline, Basel water data and route-specific bridge, water and lock reference data where available. Some values are direct live or official readings, while others are calculated support values based on the available route data.

Because source availability can change, the dashboard marks incomplete readings and shows supporting source information where possible. If a source is missing or delayed, the tool should be treated as a planning aid only.

A Cloudflare Worker collects one shared Rhine corridor snapshot every day at 12:00 Europe/Amsterdam and stores it in D1. The schedule runs on the server, so nobody needs to open passagetool.app for the daily entry to be created.

Each daily capture records both route directions and archives the available water readings, calculated water context using the shared default 1.80 m draft, reported lock chamber status, route notices and bridge-source context. When a row is expanded, the captain can add a private local note, for example a waiting time, VHF confirmation or operational remark.

History is a planning and review aid. It is not an official voyage record, a physical lock-gate or queue sensor, a company logbook or a replacement for official sources and onboard reporting procedures.

Automatic daily snapshots are shared read-only data stored in Passage Tool's Cloudflare D1 database. Captain notes are separate and remain in local browser storage on the device where they were written; notes are never added to the shared daily snapshot.

Without a Passage Tool user account, a note belongs to this browser and device only. It may be lost if browser data is cleared, private browsing is used or local storage is blocked. Do not store confidential company information, personal data or safety-critical official records in notes unless your own procedures allow it.

Yes. Use Download history in the History tab and choose JSON backup to download the currently loaded automatic days, older local entries and private captain notes together in one backup file.

Recommended backup format is JSON. Choose CSV for Excel only when you want a readable table for review and reporting; JSON is the file format used for restore and import.

Use Import backup to restore notes or older snapshots on the same browser or move them to another device. Import stays local in the browser and does not upload notes to Passage Tool's database. A current automatic D1 entry takes priority over an imported snapshot with the same day and route.

The 180-entry local limit applies only to older or imported local snapshots. It does not limit the automatic D1 archive.

No. Passage Tool supports passage planning and situational review. It does not replace official navigation information, notices to skippers, company procedures, onboard instruments, bridge marks, charts, VHF instructions, traffic control directions or the captain's judgement.

The passability assessment is advisory. Red means a critical point or all chambers of a lock may be closed; yellow means limiting margins, partial chamber closures, low reserve, restrictions or incomplete readings. Official sources and real-world navigation conditions remain decisive.