Automated Metro Operations: Challenges and Opportunities: Looking for Feedback

Over the last 30 years the global transit industry has made remarkable progress with development

Subterranean downtown station
on Copenhagen's UTO Metro 

and operation of fully automated passenger rail systems.  These systems operate with no onboard staff to provide economically attractive, safe, frequent and efficient urban transport services. 

In North America, similar systems are commonly deployed to support large airport terminal complexes.  Elsewhere in the world they are rapidly expanding as a mechanism to provide general purpose urban transportation.  Today, there are 48 lines in 32 cities that provide Unattended Train Operation (UTO) for general public transport using trains that carry more than 100 passengers. 

Like all heavy rail rapid transit (Metro) systems the UTO Metros operate on an exclusive guideway with no highway or pedestrian crossings at grade.  Unlike legacy Metros, the innovative systems use modern technologies to automatically operate each train including propulsion, brakes, doors and train spacing.  Automated barriers (Platform Screen Doors) and/or sophisticated intrusion detection systems prevent passengers and trespassers from entering the train’s guideway space.

Until recently, all of the UTO systems were new, designed and constructed from the ground up for driverless operations.  But, in the last five years transport agencies have started to convert some of their oldest lines to driverless operation.  Nuremberg’s U-Bahn was converted in 2008 and more impressively Paris RATP converted its oldest and busiest metro line to fully automated operation in 2012.   Sao Paulo Brazil is starting to convert portions of their network to UTO.  Paris is hard at work converting a second legacy line to UTO.

I've prepared that attached draft paper concerning this topic for presentation at ASCE's 3rd International Conference on Urban Public Transportation Systems to held at the Conservatoire National Des Arts et Métier in Paris later this month.  

The paper is based on the reported experiences of many UTO metros and onsite visits to interview management operating or building several UTO lines.  It is designed to introduce UTO metro operations to the American public transit community, highlight the benefits of UTO operation and review the challenges that must be addressed in building a new UTO line or converting an existing line to UTO.

Click here to download a copy of the draft paper for review and comment.