AutomatedTrain: Project Lead Susanne Gschwendtner provides exciting insights into the future of rail transport

Innovative technologies are essential for the future viability of the railroads. With the "AutomatedTrain" project, sector initiative Digitale Schiene Deutschland is taking a further step towards fully automated rail driving - a key issue for the digitalization of the rail system.

Together with nine partners from different sectors, Digitale Schiene Deutschland is testing fully automated, driverless train dispatching and parking. What was previously only available in closed subway or metro systems is also being tested in open rail operations in the "AutomatedTrain" project. Susanne Gschwendtner, Project Lead of AutomatedTrain (Digitale Schiene Deutschland), talks in an interview about why the rail system of the future needs fully automated, driverless driving and explains the goals and benefits of the project. "In AutomatedTrain, we are demonstrating the technical feasibility of fully automated driving," explains the project lead. The special aspect: intelligent sensors on the front of the train enable the traction units to detect their surroundings and react independently to obstacles - comparable to autonomous driving on the road.

The interview provides exciting insights into the challenges and special aspects of the project. It underlines the importance of cooperation between stakeholders from different sectors in order to promote a meaningful transfer of knowledge for development and to make the vision of a digitalized rail system, on which significantly more people and goods will travel, a reality.

AutomatedTrain is funded by the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union. Funding is provided by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action on the basis of a decision by the German Bundestag and the European Union.

Take a look and find out more about the "AutomatedTrain" project: