LONDON UNDERGROUND
Trains without drivers
“ This isn’t futuristic technology. It’s today’s technology and it should be grabbed with both hands.”
Is driverless technology the future, or a safety hazard that must be avoided at all costs? Kate Ashley considers the arguments for and against.
L
ondon Underground (LU) has confi rmed that driverless technology will not be tested or introduced until at least 2020,
despite
industry rumours that trials were imminent on the network.
Mike Brown, LU managing director, said: “We have always made clear that we will continue to explore new technology as it develops – in common with every other metro around the world and this is what we are doing.
“As we, and the Mayor, have made clear, this means looking at the next generation of trains and whether a conventional driver’s cab is the most effective model. However, let me be clear – there are no plans to test driverless trains on any part of the network.”
A spokesperson for LU added: “From the 2020s new trains could be operated without the need for conventional drivers – perhaps being staffed instead by something more like the Docklands Light Railway ‘train captain’.”
Union bosses have been vocal in their opposition to the plans, notably because of the effects it could have on their members, but also in terms of the safety implications.
Bob Crow, the RMT leader, said: “If the driverless trains plan has been halted that would be a massive victory for the RMT’s campaign.
“But we want to see that in writing along with a guarantee that this nonsense has been stopped for good. Until we get that our battle for both jobs and public safety will continue.”
Yet some have argued that driverless technology would actually be safer than using drivers with their inherent propensity for human error.
Philippa Oldham, head of transport and manufacturing at the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, said: “Although
London Underground is right to hold back the introduction of driverless trains until safety and passenger concerns have been addressed, in the future driverless trains could prove safer than having trains with drivers.
“There is a need to raise public confi dence in driverless technologies, as in the future these technologies could save lives. Engineers and designers are already developing automated decision-making vehicles, which will be able to achieve an even more reliable, precise and co- ordinated service than humans can.
“Signifi cantly, the Docklands Light Railway, which runs the only automated and driverless trains on the London Underground network, consistently outperforms the rest of the network for reliability.”
Clearly it does not harm the IMechE to promote the use of a technology that their engineers could be involved in implementing, and representatives of the LU workforce are understandably concerned about their own futures.
The arguments over driverless trains have been breaking out at the GLA too.
52 | rail technology magazine Oct/Nov 12 © Steve Cadman
Yet the introduction of driverless technology goes beyond these considerations, and could have a signifi cant impact on passengers and performance.
© Adam Foster
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