Soon there won't be a driver to wave out the window

French railway operator SNCF said Wednesday it was planning to introduce prototypes of driverless mainline trains for passengers and freight by 2023, and include them in scheduled services in subsequent years.

"With autonomous trains, all the trains will run in a harmonized way and at the same speed," SNCF chairman Guillaume Pepy said in a statement. "The train system will become more fluid."

The operator hopes that the switch will allow it to run more trains on France's busiest mainlines, and cut energy consumption.

Many cities, including Paris, already run driverless metro trains but driverless long-distance travel presents a new set of challenges, Pepy said.

"Railways are an open system, and the unexpected is the rule," Pepy said.

SNCF will be partnering up with rolling stock specialists Alstom and Bombardier who will each be heading up consortia for freight and passenger traffic, respectively.

The shift to driverless trains is to happen in stages, Pierre Izard, who runs SNCF's rail technologies division, told AFP, "up to the most extreme of automatisation, when there is no human presence onboard".

Pepy said that autonomous trains "are clearly the future", but he also said it may take time before passengers accept boarding driverless trains.

Although Australia, China and Japan are already experimenting with driverless trains, France is not coming too late to the game, said Carole Desnost, head of innovation at SNCF.

SNCF said it was talking to German operator Deutsche Bahn about promoting a European standard for driverless trains.

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© 2018 AFP</s>"Autonomous" trains will all travel at the same speed and their movements will be harmonised, leading to a more frequent and more punctual service, Pepy predicted.

Energy consumption should go down, according to the plan, and there will be more trains on the most heavily used lines.

The SNCF joined other companies, notably engineering companies Alstom and Bombardier, in forming two consortiums, one to build freight trains, the other passenger ones.

The first freight trains, described as "drone trains", should be operating in 2021.

More completely automated freight trains and passenger trains should be ready in 2023.

The SNCF in contact with its German counterpart about the project, SNCF technology boss Pierre Izard said.</s>"With autonomous trains, all the trains will run in a harmonized way and at the same speed," SNCF chairman Guillaume Pepy said in a statement. "The train

system will become more fluid."

The operator hopes that the switch will allow it to run more trains on France's busiest mainlines, and cut energy consumption.

Many cities, including Paris, already run driverless metro trains but driverless long-distance travel presents a new set of challenges, Pepy said.

"Railways are an open system, and the unexpected is the rule," Pepy said.

SNCF will be partnering up with rolling stock specialists Alstom and Bombardier who will each be heading up consortia for freight and passenger traffic, respectively.

The shift to driverless trains is to happen in stages, Pierre Izard, who runs SNCF's rail technologies division, told AFP, "up to the most extreme of automatisation, when there is no human presence onboard".

Pepy said that autonomous trains "are clearly the future", but he also said it may take time before passengers accept boarding driverless trains.

Although Australia, China and Japan are already experimenting with driverless trains, France is not coming too late to the game, said Carole Desnost, head of innovation at SNCF.

SNCF said it was talking to German operator Deutsche Bahn about promoting a European standard for driverless trains.</s>French state railway company SNCF said Wednesday it wants to put driverless trains on the country's tracks by 2023.

The initial goal is to have an autonomous train prototype ready in five years for use on slower regional and freight journeys. By 2025 SNCF hopes to have self-driving trains on regular routes.

"This is clearly the future of trains," SNCF chief Guillaume Pepy said in Paris on Wednesday.

SNCF said it is investing 57 million euros (66 million dollars) to develop a prototype train that could be used on France's existing rail network, parts of which stretch back a century.

Driverless trains would expand the country's rail capacity and increase punctuality, SNCF said.</s>SNCF Mobilites -- Moody's: SNCF MobilitÃ©s' credit quality to stay on track despite loss of French rail monopoly</s>IN the last couple of weeks I’ve managed to travel all the way from Doncaster to Saint Raphael-Valescure in the South of France by train – and back again – without a hitch. And yet a simple trip from Yorkshire to London now sounds like it could be in jeopardy thanks to yet more ineptitude.

We set off from Doncaster to King’s Cross, then took the Eurostar to Paris. After two nights in the French capital, we headed to Marseille on a TGV high-speed train. From here it was the TER (Transport Express Regional) to Saint Raphael-Valescure, where we boarded a bus for Port Grimaud to finish our French adventure in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez.

The Yorkshire Post says: This is how not to run a railway

As far as I could deduce, the TER is like a French equivalent of Northern, only with double-decker trains (on our commuter-time return journey, at least) and a conductor who walks through the train as it sets off saying a cheery bonjour to all the passengers.

Can you just imagine this on your typical delayed Northern service from Leeds to York? He would require a protective helmet and armour.

Sorry if you’re reading this stuck somewhere just outside Sherburn-in-Elmet, but can I just say that not one of the eight trains we travelled on in eight days was either late or cancelled. Perhaps we were just lucky, but this was train travel the way it should be. And all for the cost of less than a six-month season ticket between Sheffield and Leeds, which starts at £1,382.40.

Tom Richmond: Rail’s own Chuckle Brothers are having a laugh at us

Two adults, a teenager and a 12-year-old did this entire cross-continental return journey thanks to very reasonable Interrail tickets. With mandatory Eurostar and TGV reservations, the whole trip cost around £1,000. Given you’re unlikely to have much change out of £400 for four return tickets from Doncaster to London alone unless you book months in advance, this has to represent a bargain.

And now I’ve come back from holiday to discover that I might not even be able to take advantage of high-speed travel from London to Yorkshire on the new environmentally-friendly Azuma trains on the East Coast Main Line because the trains do not work properly with the track. It’s reported that the rolling stock causes electromagnetic interference to older signals and points north of Colton Junction near York.

This means that these new electro-diesel trains will only be able to run on diesel and will therefore have to go rather slower than anticipated. Inevitably, operator Network Rail is blaming the Japanese train manufacturer Hitachi. And Hitachi, which is building the new trains at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, is blaming Network Rail for failing to update 30-year-old signalling systems so the trains can actually use the lines they have been designed for.

And the response of Transport Chris Grayling, whose overall responsibility this is? He says that it’s just “teething problems”. You might have hoped someone would have thought to match up the trains to the rails over the past decade?

Not so. Former Transport Secretary Lord Adonis told this newspaper: “I ordered these trains 10 years ago and it is incredible that in this time they have not sorted out power issues so they can run properly. This is yet another failure by Chris Grayling and his Transport department, for which travellers in Yorkshire and the North are paying dear.”

Yes, and in more ways than one. And we think we can compete with Europe on an equal footing? How can a post-Brexit UK stand proud in the world when its public transport system is not so much rolling stock, but laughing stock? And how can the North of England play its full and meaningful part in the economic development of the country if the basics are lacking?

I’m not completely blinded by the efficiency we enjoyed on French trains. I understand that the state-owned SNCF has had its own issues with engines, carriages and infrastructure not matching up in the past. And of course, the French railway unions are renowned for their notoriously hot-headed approach to industrial relations.

However, as we travelled all those thousands of miles on public transport, I kept thinking about how the French can get it so right when we consistently get it so wrong. This was as true on the Parisian metro, with trains at every station within two or three minutes, as it was on the bus from Port Grimaud to Saint-Valescure at 7am carrying students, tourists, businessmen people, pensioners and families to their destinations.

As I stared out of the window at the fields of Flanders on the way home – we took the Eurostar at Lille – I could only conclude that France is a far more democratic place than the United Kingdom. Its people expect certain things and in turn they are provided with them. In our country, anything the public requires is doled out grudgingly, carved up and turned into a profiteering scheme. I’d stop short at revolution, but it’s time things changed.</s>This is the 17th fatality involving a person hit by a train in Washington state this year.

A man walking across the tracks between two BNSF Railway freight cars was struck and killed Monday afternoon near South Spokane Street, the railroad says.

The incident was reported at 2:55 p.m. to emergency dispatchers. Sound Transit’s first Sounder south train to Pierce County made it out of Seattle, but others were held at King Street Station.

One of the three mainline tracks in South Seattle was expected to reopen around 4:30 p.m., BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said. Delays are likely to persist for some time beyond that. Five trains will depart southbound between 4:55 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., Sound Transit said in an update.

This is the 17th time a person has been fatally hit by a train in Washington state this year, Melonas said. The freight train was arriving from Chicago into a BNSF South Seattle yard, he said.

Sound Transit has been rounding up some extra buses to carry people out of King Street Station, spokesman Scott Thompson said. These could include Sumner, Puyallup, and Lakewood routes that would start their evening trips earlier than usual, he said.

Sounder trains carry about 18,000 people a day, most to and from south-end stations. On Thursday several trains were canceled or delayed because of a police response near Boeing Field, when a man hid under a freight train. And earlier this year, trains were delayed by maintenance work. Sounder shares the same regional train corridor with freight and pays BNSF for time on the privately-owned tracks.</s>The Central Railway's plan to convert existing 12-car trains into 15-car will also be included in the Mumbai Urban Transport Project 3A, sais Piyush Goyal

In a major development, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal announced that Central Railway Mumbai will get four semi-air-conditioned local trains during the summer of 2018-19 and that a plan to convert existing 12-car trains into 15-car will be included in the Mumbai Urban Transport Project 3A (MUTP-3A).



India's first Air-conditioned suburban train that runs on Mumbai's Western Railway

"The plan to upgrade infrastructure to run 15-car trains on Central Railway will be taken up in the upcoming MUTP-3A," Goyal wrote in a letter to Mumbai North East MP Kirit Somaiya this week. Somaiya put out a tweet mentioning the same on Wednesday.

"The trains are being manufactured by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) and will run in the next five to six months once they are despatched by the factory," Somaiya told Mid-Day.

The trains will have six AC and six non-AC compartments and will cost Rs 60 crore.

Also Red: Mumbai: 22 Lakh Commuters Have Used AC Train Since December, 15,000 Use It Daily

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates</s>The report titled “Thailand Freight Forwarding Market Outlook to 2022 – By Freight Movement (Sea, Road, Air and Rail Freight); By Normal and Express Delivery; By International and Domestic Freight; By International Flow Corridors and By Third Party Logistics” provides a comprehensive analysis of overall market size for freight forwarding in Thailand, segmentation by normal and express delivery, by freight movement (sea freight, road freight, air freight and rail freight), by international and domestic freight forwarding and by flow corridors (Asia Countries, NAFTA countries, European Countries and Others). The report also covers the overall competitive landscape and government role and regulations. The report concludes with market projection for future and analyst recommendations highlighting the major opportunities and cautions.

 Thailand Freight Forwarding Market Overview and Size

 The growth of freight forwarding in Thailand was supported by development in major industries such as manufacturing, retail, automobiles and agriculture. Expanding FMCG sector, retail sector, food and E-commerce industry in the country has attributed to the growth of the freight forwarding industry in the country. The freight forwarding industry in Thailand has grown at a five year positive CAGR in the review period 2012-2017. The Thai government’s focus on improving the sectors including infrastructure development, the restructure of the rail freight market under the transport infrastructure development strategies 2022 will see the development of the cargo transport market via railways and increase the role of rail freight, particularly in key economic zones as well as the remote areas.

 Thailand Freight Forwarding Market Segmentation

 By Normal and Express Delivery

 The normal / standard delivery segment dominated Thailand freight forwarding market whereas the remaining revenue share was captured by the express delivery segment in the year 2017. Normal delivery services are generally preferred where there is no urgent requirement for ordered goods. In Thailand, majority of the customers prefer the cheapest form of shipping and are witnessed to wait for longer durations. Major companies operating into normal delivery includes SCG Logistics, Schenker Limited, Yusen Logistics, CEVA Logistics, Wice Logistics, Siam Shipping Agility Logistics, III Logistics and others.

 By Freight Movement

 The road freight segment dominated Thailand freight forwarding market in the year 2017 owing to a larger fleet of vehicles and strong cross-border trade with the ASEAN neighbors coupled with national network of strategically located warehouses and distribution centers. The sea freight segment followed road freight services in Thailand freight forwarding market in the year 2017 majorly due to increasing trade activities with FTA signatories. Ports of Laem Chabang and Bangkok are the leading seaports of Thailand and handle the majority of sea freight volume in the country, thereby offering services like cargo handling, tallying and warehousing. Other leading seaports include Chiang Saen port.

 By International and Domestic Freight Forwarding

 International freight forwarding accounted for majority of the revenues for overall Thailand freight forwarding market in 2017. Free trade agreements with other nations over the period have provided significant boost to international freight forwarding sector in Thailand. On the other hand, the domestic freight forwarding segment was observed to capture the remaining share in 2017.

 By Flow Corridors

 Asia flow corridor was observed to be the largest contributor in terms of revenue in Thailand freight forwarding market in the year 2017. In accordance with International Trade Centre, Thailand’s import to Asia as well as export from Asia was recorded as of 2017 in comparison with other regions such as NAFTA countries, Europe, and others. The Thailand-Europe flow corridor followed Thailand-Asia with a double digit share in the year 2017. Other major flow corridor includes the NAFTA countries which have been counted as emerging trading partners for Thailand.

 Bangkok in the central region is drawing interest from a number of global investors seeking office / commercial space, retail and hospitality investment opportunities coupled with a high rise in buildings and a number of shopping centers in the city. The city is well connected with the rest of the world through air and sea routes and thereby, drawing huge foreign investments from international players to various sectors.

 Competitive Landscape

 The freight forwarding industry in Thailand was observed as highly fragmented with the presence of both domestic as well international freight forwarders in the country. According to the membership record of customs broker and Transport association of Thailand, there are around 1400 large scale international freight forwarders that provide all types of services including LCL, FCL and others, large scale operators exist which provide fewer services thus totaling ~ large scale international freight forwarders in the country. On the basis of revenue, major freight forwarding companies providing air freight services include – Kerry Logistics, DHL Express, CJ Express ,Thai Post, DHL Post, Nikos Logistics, FedEx, TNT and UPS. Other freight forwarders focusing on ocean freight / contract logistics / warehousing services include Ceva Logistics, Agility Logistics, DB Schenker and others. The China, Japan, US and EU market was witnessed to majorly contribute towards Thailand freight forwarding market.

 Thailand Freight Forwarding Market Future Outlook and Projections

 Thailand freight forwarding market is expected to generate significant revenues by the year ending 2022, driven by growth in both international and domestic demand, growing E-commerce industry and continuous investment by the government in development of logistics infrastructure in Thailand. The growth shown by the automobiles industry and electronics manufacturing has fuelled the economy during the tough economic period in the past few years, thus driving the demand for freight forwarding services. As the AEC blueprint 2025 is materialized on ground, the country is expected to be benefitted in a positive manner.

 Key Segments Covered

 By Freight Movement
• Pipelines
• Railways
• Road
• Sea
• Air
• Transportation Services and Postal services & communications

 By Delivery:
• Normal
• Express

 By Freight Forwarding
• International
• Domestic

 By Flow Corridors
• Asian Countries
• NAFTA Countries
• European Countries and Others

 By Companies
• International Companies
• Domestic Companies

 Key Target Audience
• Shipping Companies
• Freight Forwarders
• Logistics Association
• Express and E-Commerce Logistics Companies
• Consulting service providers
• Private Equity/ VCs/ Investment Banking Companies

 Time Period Captured in the Report:

 2012-2017 – Historical Period

 2018-2022 – Future Forecast

 Companies Covered:
• Damco Thailand
• DHL Thailand
• Triple I
• Kerry Logistics Thailand
• NCL Logistics Thailand
• Nippon Express Thailand
• DB Shenker
• WICE Logistics
• SIAM Shipping
• Agility
• Bangkok Freight Forwarders
• Royaltainer
• Axium Shipping

 For more information on the research report, refer to below link:

 https://www.kenresearch.com/automotive-transportation-and-warehousing/logistics-and-shipping/thailand-freight-forwarding-market-outlook-2022/156566-100.html

 Related Reports:

 https://www.kenresearch.com/automotive-transportation-and-warehousing/logistics-and-shipping/poland-freight-forwarding-market/149480-100.html

 https://www.kenresearch.com/automotive-transportation-and-warehousing/logistics-and-shipping/oman-freight-forwarding-market/149658-100.html

 https://www.kenresearch.com/automotive-transportation-and-warehousing/logistics-and-shipping/vietnam-freight-forwarding-market/145654-100.html

 Contact Us:

 Ken Research

 Ankur Gupta, Head Marketing & Communications

 sales@kenresearch.com

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The French railway company SNCF announces prototypes for driverless passenger and freight trains by 2023.