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Old August 26th 03, 05:36 PM posted to uk.transport.london
Paul Corfield Paul Corfield is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,995
Default Driverless trains.

On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 15:48:55 GMT, "Richard J."
wrote:

Boltar wrote:
"Ed Crowley" wrote in message
t...
I would imagine an engineer would be called. What happens on the
driver-less airport shuttle trains such as those at Stanstead and
Gatwick?


I think theres a slight difference between a mickey mouse 1 car
people mover on a half mile above ground track with a few dozen
people on board and a tube train with 800 passengers and 8 cars
underground in the heat!


Does anyone know if there are any Métro staff on board the trains on line 14
in Paris, which have ATO and no driver at the front? (Good view for
passengers though!)


From memory there are no staff on the trains. I believe that the VAL
trains in Lille and elsewhere in France also have no on board staff. The
new North Easy line in Singapore is also driverless but staff do
sometimes travel on trains - there are always people in the stations.
Berlin have also tested driverless capability on one of the U Bahn lines
recently.

It is not beyond the wit of operators to provide driverless trains that
prove to be entirely acceptable to the travelling public. I would accept
that there is a cultural issue to deal with in London concerning
completely staff less trains - especially with regard to the current
level of unreliability; passenger information, safety, security and
vandalism issues. A lot of work would be needed to switch LUL lines to
a fully automated mode.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!