Dear Doctor Rail,
There has recently been a lot of public discussion about driverless cars. When will we see the first driverless trains? I look forward to your answer in the SBB blog.
Martin
Dear Martin,
The driverless car was a hot topic once again at this year’s Geneva International Motor Show in March and it has attracted a lot of attention in the media too. It’s a fascinating question, thank you! However, to be able to say anything much about it at all, we would really need to hire a fortune teller to look deep into the future…
It’s certainly true that there’s already a lasting trend towards partially or fully automated driving on our roads. People are talking about «self-driving cars» which can drive, steer and park without any intervention from a human driver. Currently, a wide variety of manufacturers are working on several projects to produce cars like these, such as the «Drive Me» project launched a year ago in Gothenburg in Sweden. And don’t forget Google’s driverless technology, as well as other manufacturers who are making substantial investments in this area. Various research projects by individual vehicle manufacturers on the subject of freight transport on the roads are in progress and initial tests have already been performed successfully in Europe. It seems inevitable that these new possibilities for freight transport will also be tested on the rails in due course. You may have already read a bit about this in the blog by our Cargo colleagues. If not, I recommend that you do – it makes for fascinating reading which immediately leads you to the next question: When will parcels come from the air?
However, you were asking about passenger trains without drivers. Well, underground trains without drivers are already a common sight in over 20 cities. In Nuremberg in Germany, for example, a fully automated train of this kind has been in operation for a few years and the M2 metro in Lausanne or the Polybahn funicular trains in Zurich also run without any human intervention in the cab. However, it won’t be possible to compare them with a conventional passenger train for quite a long time… SBB has no specific plans for driverless trains, or even any timeframes. Don’t forget that we have already ordered trains for the next few decades and are constantly bringing existing fleets up to scratch so that they’re ready to be used for countless years and millions of kilometres to come – and none of these trains are designed for driverless operation. You also have to remember all the train control systems up to ETCS level 2, in which SBB is constantly investing and which would then have to be implemented across the board to ensure the safety of customers.
So there will certainly still be engine drivers for many years to come. However, a possible development at some point in the distant future could be to separate hubs and routes: driverless trains could travel through the hubs and drivers could operate the trains on the routes.
I hope I’ve been able to give you a brief overview.
Regards, Doctor Rail
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