First driverless trains to run by 2023
SNCF has joined forces with industrial partners to develop driverless trains. Two consortiums have been formed for this purpose, one for passenger and the other for freight traffic. For Fret SNCF’s freight section, the French rail company is partnering with Alstom, Altran, Hitachi and Apsys.
The first prototypes have already been tested. In October 2020 for example, a Prima BB 27000 locomotive ran in semi-automated mode between the French towns of Longwy and Longuyon, near the Luxembourg border.
SNCF intends to put driverless train prototypes on the French rail network in operation by 2023, with scale-up starting in 2025. All in all, EUR 57 million are budgeted for the first phase of the ongoing project.
With driverless trains, SNCF and its industrial partners aim to improve rail transport services by increasing punctuality, streamlining traffic, reducing energy consumption and augmenting transport capacity. (ben)