2024-03-21 13:53:07
The SBB successfully operated a locomotive from a power station 7 km away. The tests took place in recent weeks in the Zurich region. This advance is part of a series of projects which aim to partially automate trains.
This is a first in Europe: the pilot is in a room, facing a simulator. In front of him, screens and controllers that resemble a real driving position. This system is connected to a locomotive equipped with additional cameras. The pilot remotely controls the 90-ton machine at a speed that does not exceed 30 km/h.
With this system, the driver receives the gift of ubiquity, as Beat Rappo, project manager at SBB, explained to SRF.
“You can naturally connect very quickly to another vehicle. And in two minutes, we can control another locomotive located in a completely different location. This allows us to save travel between different stations, or taxi costs per example.”
Not for now
However, this technology will not be implemented immediately, since it is expected at best at the end of the decade. In question, the system must be certified by the authorities and the procedures must be validated.
And there is no question of remotely piloting a passenger train, assure the CFF. This will only involve moving trains in marshalling yards, work zones, or to roll an empty train from the platform to its siding.
Other private Swiss companies are also carrying out automation projects such as the RBS between Bern and Solothurn.
This automation, even partial, of locomotive driving aims for improvements in terms of safety, traffic flow or energy consumption, like the autopilot which equips most aircraft today.
Stéphane Deleury/fgn
1711031168
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