LUXEMBOURG: National railway CFL has awarded Alstom a contract to equip 34 Coradia Stream EMUs for automatic train operation, in what the supplier says will be the first project in Europe to fit a regional train fleet for Grade of Automation 2 using ATO over ETCS.
CFL placed a €360m order for the high-capacity double-deck EMUs in December 2018. The trains are scheduled to begin entering commercial service in Luxembourg from the end of 2021, operating cross-border routes into Belgium and France.
The order includes 80 m and 160 m long EMUs with a maximum speed of 160 km/h. Designed for 25 kV 50 Hz operation, the trains will be equipped with ETCS Level 2 Baseline 3 and TBL1+ to permit operation in the three countries.
The ATO equipment for GoA2 will be installed at Alstom’s Signalling Centre of Excellence in Charleroi. It will support fully-automated starting, driving and stopping, with the driver able to intervene in the event of an emergency. Semi-automated operation is expected to increase network capacity by reducing headways as well as cutting energy consumption through more predictable performance.
Automation ambitions
Announcing the ATO order on June 30, Alstom said its ambition was to automate trains on main line networks. The company is leading the European ATO project as part of Shift2Rail. It is also part of a testing programme in Germany aimed at achieving GoA3 (attended automatic) operation of regional passenger trains, in partnership with aerospace research centre DLR, Technische Universität Berlin, operator Metronom and the Greater Braunschweig transport authority. Alstom has also undertaken GoA4 (unattended) tests with a Rotterdam Rail Feeding shunting locomotive in the Netherlands.
‘In the future, automated trains will optimise regional rail operations, reduce energy consumption and increase passenger comfort’, said Bernard Belvaux, Managing Director of Alstom Benelux. ‘Automatic operation will make a decisive contribution to the development of a modern, attractive railway network. We are proud to work with CFL to offer this European first.’
