Press releases

2019/12/17

FIRST AUTOMATED DRIVING TESTS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED BY CAF SIGNALLING ON NS UNITS IN THE NETHERLANDS

CAF Signalling has successfully tested its own ATO (Automatic Train Operation) over ETCS (GoA2) in SNG trains from CAF, together with the Dutch operator NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen). It is a very important milestone as it is the first time ATO over ETCS is tested in passenger trains running on high density lines.

Due to the high occupancy of Dutch rail lines and as part of the analysis that NS is doing to optimize their operation, NS asked CAF Signalling to experiment with this new technology and understand the benefits they can obtain.

A pilot test was carried out (without passengers) during the night of 10th December where an SNG train drove automatically from Swifterbant to Kampen Zuid, in Hanzelijn, stopping automatically and at scheduled time in Dronten station, where some people of the NS management board, CAF Signalling and Dutch media was present.

These tests (defined also in the frame of Shift2Rail) are part of a test campaign that will allow NS to test different functionalities of the ATO over ETCS during the next months.