Re: Driverless trains in USA

["James C." <james_ccj@optusnetdotcomdotau>]

> To save money.
>
> No - not wages :-) - from reduction of energy consumed.
>
> Considerable research work going on at Centre for Railway Engineering
> here (Rocky) to get improved driving techniques for energy reduction
> particularly on the heavy haul stuff (22,000 tons).
> Big, big bikkies from even 1% energy saving.
> This is heading toward either full automation or driver augmentation - a
> bit like current airliners.

I read an article from "Railway Gazette" last year. French builder "Metra"
(now Alstom) built driverless trains for Chicago and Taiwan(Taipei city)
both cities were not very happy about the product from Metra because they
both found trains fail more often then usual and cost of maintain equipment
are way too high.

Cheers
James