The global trend for rail automation is increasing but there are very few publications on public perception of the ongoing changes in the railways. In order to fill this gap and to better understand people's perception of driverless trains, the paper focuses on automation of metro systems with a particular interest in unattended train operation (UTO). A survey seeking a public opinion on UTO was conducted, and the results show that 93 % of female and 72 % of male respondents think that a ''fake'' driver room should be present on a driverless train. In terms of human error, a great majority of respondents expressed no worries about a train design or maintenance issues. However, staff communication, selected by 36 % males and 43 % females, and a technical failure, highlighted by 50 % of males and 43 % of females, were two issues that raised most safety concerns amongst the respondents. Other results related to passenger's safety, employment, advantages and limitations of the UTO, amongst other issues, are presented and discussed in the paper.
Metro systems around the world have many differences in their design and operation, one aspect of which is the level of automation. The most advanced technology available allows for unattended train operation with no staff on-board, which can bring a number of benefits. As a result, this is becoming increasingly common for new-build metro systems (such as the Dubai Metro), as well as for upgrades of traditional driver-led systems (such as Paris Métro Line 1). This paper uses the Tyne and Wear Metro as a case study to highlight the potential benefits and obstacles of implementing driverless trains on an existing metro system. This investigation has two parts: a review of the challenges of implementing increasing levels of automation for the existing Metro infrastructure and a simulation exercise to compare automatic train operation with manual driving on the core section of the Metro network. The results of the simulation exercise show that significant increases in the capacity of the Tyne and Wear Metro system are possible when automatic train operation is implemented in conjunction with resignalling. However, low adhesion conditions represent a significant risk to achieving this capacity increase reliably, and additional measures to mitigate low adhesion conditions would be required. The study also discusses the infrastructure upgrades required to convert an existing system to unattended train operation. The most significant obstacle for the Metro is that it mostly runs at ground level, with some sections shared with main line services. The costs associated with securing the tracks and ensuring compatibility with main line trains mean that the Metro is not a particularly promising application for driverless train operation at this time. Nonetheless, the issues discussed in the paper are very much relevant for other metro systems, and the methodology of this study is easily transferrable.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence Newcastle University ePrints -eprint.ncl.ac.uk Fraszczyk A, Lamb T, Marinov M. Are railways really that bad? An evaluation of rail systems performance in Europe.
There are 32 cities around the world with automated metro systems in operation. The majority of these are located in Europe (13) and Asia (14) but none so far in Australia. However, the picture is changing in 2019 when the first stage of the 'Sydney Metro' starts its operation on the North West link in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The automated train is planned to be used safely without human interaction, thus reducing significantly the labour input in the provision of service. Although the proposal for a fully automated system came late in the planning phase of the Sydney Metro project, it appears that, from a technical point of view, the project is clear and well planned. However, providing information to Sydneysiders and understanding their attitudes towards automation has received no consideration. Moreover, how the public perceive these changes and their attitudes to aspects of the new system, including driverless trains, may well be crucial in properly positioning and marketing the new services to ensure the expected patronage. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating public opinion of the new Sydney Metro service by undertaking a research on people's perceptions of a driverless train as well as their attitudes to the new transport system and public transport more generally
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