Hands off: the untouched console during a test drive
Keystone/Christian Merz
Swiss Federal Railways has tested a system to automate train traffic. If rolled out, the idea is to increase passenger and freight capacity by 30%.
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In the early hours of Tuesday, a train carrying about 30 people made its way along a stretch of track within the Bern-Zurich corridor, without a human touching the physical controls. Instead, a remote system steered the train for a while, both braking and accelerating.
“Automatic driving tools can reduce the distance between trains. With shorter gaps between the trains we can bring more trains onto the tracks – and that means more seats for passengers and more tons of freight,” Meyer said. The goal is to increase capacity by 30%.
Asked whether it was safe, Meyer said “absolutely”. He also said that the technology would not replace human train drivers.
“The train driver’s job will become more of a monitoring role,” Meyer said. “But in our heavily used and varied transport system, we need staff who are familiar with the different train models.”
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.