Germany's national rail operator Deutsche Bahn and technology group Siemens celebrated a world premiere on the railways on Monday: For the first time, a fully-automated, digitally-controlled commuter train, known as the S-Bahn, started in Hamburg.
Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz announced that the technology will be gradually extended to the city's entire S-Bahn network in the future. Autonomous trains have been around for some time. What is new, he said, is the open system, which is compatible with any railroad that can handle the technical standards.
The S21 commuter train runs on a specially equipped line. The trains, which have been specially converted for automatic operation, start, accelerate, brake, and stop themselves. The four S-Bahn trains converted for this purpose will be in scheduled service from December.
The "Digital S-Bahn Hamburg" project is part of the "Digital Rail Germany" project, with which Deutsche Bahn intends to generally bring its infrastructure into the digital age by the next decade. This is urgently needed, said Siemens CEO Roland Busch, because in many places the railroads still have "outdated technology."
According to Deutsche Bahn CEO Lutz, digitalization will enable up to 30 percent more capacity without additional tracks on existing lines because trains can run at tighter intervals. Siemens CEO Busch added that energy savings of up to 30 percent could also be achieved and punctuality improved.
"The new technology has already been approved and because it has open interfaces, all operators worldwide can use it immediately for all train types," Busch said. Siemens is currently the only supplier of this system, Busch said.
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