From
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/trans...n-9295476.html

Matthew Beard, Transport Editor

Paris Metro bosses today backed plans to emulate the city’s use of
driverless underground trains in London.
RATP has advised Transport for London as it plans to convert four Tube
lines to full automation, beginning with the Piccadilly line in the mid
2020s.

Under the £16 billion programme, passengers will travel on trains “driven”
from a control centre. Some unions have opposed the plans, insisting they
pose a safety risk while many passengers remain unnerved at the prospect of
a cab-less train.

The Paris Metro has led the way in Europe, with the first driverless line
opening in 1998, a second in 2012 and a third due by the end of the decade.

The Metro suffered its last major strike in 1995 and reforms made in 2000
force unions to the negotiating table before a strike ballot can be held.
Such rules are the envy of TfL as it seeks 950 job cuts in its programme to
close Tube ticket offices, a move that has promoted the threat of a fresh
wave strikes, with RMT members due to stage a 48-hour strike from tonight.

Trains in Paris operate to the highest level of automation — more advanced
than the driverless trains of London’s DLR — with automatic trains braking
and accelerating, doors operated remotely and tracks protected by platform
edge screen doors familiar to Jubilee line passengers. With no staff on the
automated lines, a passenger alarm connects to RATP’s control centre using
live CCTV cameras which also show views of the tunnel ahead.

Phillipe Mancone, Chief of Line 1 at RATP, insisted that full automation
was not a blanket solution in Paris, whose 14 lines carry five million
passengers a day. He said it had transformed the performance of Line 1,
which opened two years ago and is the same as the Victoria line in length
and capacity, carrying 750,000 passengers a day.

He said: “It is a good system for Paris on lines which have reached
saturation point. These are typically lines running through tourist
hotspots and one-off events where there are sudden peaks and you need to
respond in real time. It gives you safety, adaptability and increased
reliability and performance.” Advanced signalling enables trains to run at
a rate of 38 per hour — 85 seconds apart — in the peak, four more than
London’s top-performing Victoria Line.

Staffing levels have been cut from 250 to 40. Mr Mancone said: “We had to
discuss it with the unions for years to show them the benefits. It hasn’t
weakened the unions, it’s just another way of working. Automation is not a
religion; on some lines it is not necessary.”

Gareth Powell, London Underground’s director of strategy, said by following
the model, the Piccadilly Line could achieve a 60 per cent capacity
increase. In February, TfL began the search for a supplier of 250
driverless Tube trains to operate from the middle of the next decade on the
Piccadilly, Central, Bakerloo and Waterloo & City lines.