Automated Shunting Operations to move to pilot deployments after successful test

A collaboration between Wabtec and partners demonstrated Automated Shunting Operations (ASO) at Vienna’s Albern Hafen rail yard earlier this month. ASO should help improve productivity, mitigate staff shortages and improve operational safety. The technology will now proceed to pilot operations before commercial deployment. The demonstration took place under the framework of Europe’s Rail’s FP5 TRANS4M-R project, which aims to improve rail freight by enabling higher transport and shorter transportation times, improve flexibility and reliability, and deal with staff shortages.

ASO falls under this framework. It is designed to automate the formation and handling of trains within rail yards. In simple terms, ASO enables a locomotive to autonomously assemble trains and perform shunting operations. The locomotive receives digital instructions, which it carries out automatically while integrated with the yard’s operational and safety systems.

In Vienna, a demonstrator successfully showcased this concept. It integrated a GoA4 Yard Management System, automated route planning and setting, remotely controlled switches, equipped wagons, and an automated battery-powered shunting locomotive. The locomotive was capable of executing missions without human intervention.

Wabtec’s EMEA Sales Director Costel Antonello Grozea called the demonstrator “a great success”. The system performed reliably throughout the demonstrations and validated key automated train-formation and wagon-handling processes in a real operational environment, according to him.

This story was originally published by RailFreight.com. Read the full story at RailFreight.com →