CHILE: President Michelle Bachelet opened the first driverless metro line in Santiago on November 2.
Line 6 links Cerrillos to Los Leones on a 15·3 km underground alignment, serving 10 stations. Interchanges are provided with metro lines 1, 2 and 5, as well as the future Line 3 and the Metrotrén suburban railway. The end-to-end journey time is 20 min.
Construction began in 2014. In 2013 a consortium of CAF and Thales won a US$451·9m contract to supply 37 trainsets and signalling for Line 6 and Line 3, which is due to open next year. Thales has supplied CBTC signalling designed for headways of 90 sec.
Services are operated with 15 five-car trainsets, drawing power at 750 V DC overhead. The trains have capacity for 1 285 passengers and a maximum speed of 80 km/h.
