The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) (
www.raildeliverygroup.com), which represents the train companies and Network Rail, has published a ‘blueprint’ saying that driverless trains could be introduced in the UK “within a generation”.
This outlines plans to develop “fully intelligent trains” that would operate in autonomous mode (but under remote supervision) and estimates that £342 million a year could be saved through reduced delays, cuts in staffing costs and an increase in the number of trains being operated.
The report says: “A network of fully intelligent trains will be self-regulating, negotiating vehicle to vehicle to resolve movement authorities and potential conflicts at junctions.”
The only driverless trains in the UK at the moment run onthe Docklands Light Railway in London, although they usually have a conductor on board who closes the doors.
The report also backs the expansion of a hands-free system that reads passengers’ tickets as they board a train; this technology will be trialled by Chiltern Railways between Oxford Parkway and London Marylebone later this year.
The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) will initiate a study next month into the feasibility of introducing more driverless trains over the next 20 years.
Trevor Bradbury at the RSSB said: “There is an awful lot of money being poured into autonomous vehicles by the automotive sector, and it would be wrong of the railways to ignore that work.
"It is conceptually slightly simpler to introduce driverless technology on a railway line, because you don’t need to steer a train — it follows the track — and we know where all the signals are sited.”