Seems over-complicated…

I could imagine an autonomous, on-demand rural train service. Due to the low expected traffic, it seems like you could just build some additional sidings and use a more conventional design.

You might also find the Python library pandas useful. Its “DataFrames” can mirror your excel data 1:1 and you have convenience methods like to_excel(). Easy to combine with numpy for performant matrix math.

XLSX just becomes a container for storing/sharing your data, and while Python is used for analysis. I would use matplotlib for plotting rather than embedding in the sheet.

If I’m doing anything substantial, calculation-wise, I use openpyxl.

Agreed. I really tried to like Libre/OpenOffice over the years but it never felt right. OnlyOffice really hits the spot for me.

I don’t use Windows much any more but I was happy with the discounted student version of Office 2016, afaik the last perpetual license.