Driverless trains to precede cars

The first step towards autonomous motoring in Australia will come from a surprisingly different direction.

It’s trains that will lead the way, ahead of cars in campuses, according to the giant global transport corporation, Transdev.

It is predicting that everything from real-time transport scheduling to passenger-service apps will revolutionise the way people get around cities and suburbs, paving the way for autonomous buses, trucks and cars.

Transdev employs 5800 people who operate 2150 vehicles and vessels and including buses, trains, light-rail and ferries across the country.

“The model of cities of tomorrow is being defined as we speak and it’s being influenced by new transport paradigms,” says the CEO of Transdev in Australia, Rene Lalande.

“You are going to start seeing trains without a driver. You’re going to start seeing autonomous vehicles. You are going to start seeing trains that are travelling much closer together.

“Autonomy of vehicles, coupled with the kind of technology we have for passenger-flow management, is going to be a massive change.”

The transport trends are identified by Transdev in its regular Multi-Country Barometer, undertaken from the company’s headquarters in Paris every three to five years.

Australia is one of the five countries involved in the survey in 2018, together with the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Sweden, with key decision makers in public transportation and other government agencies, elected representatives, NGOs and peak industry bodies all consulted.

The company sees technology pushing the boundaries in the public-transport sector and has developed its own acronym, PACE -- standing for Personalised, Autonomous, Connected and Electric -- to highlight the innovations it is developing for its operations.

Lalande says new technology and infrastructure will enable the coming changes, together with the move towards autonomous vehicles of all sorts.

“There are big enablers out there. There are new technologies that improve the throughput, the driving, and these are helping.

“There will be more applications on mobile phones that are responsive. Instead of a timetable, you will see in real time where the vehicle is and the schedule being adapted to demand.

“A lot will be visible in the virtual world and some will be visible in the real world.”

Transdev sees the need for more transport infrastructure to provide the platform for the future and, according to Lalande, that is one of the biggest challenges.

“The problem is to adapt, and adapt faster, to changes of technologies and expectations of customers,” he says.

“We live in a totally different paradigm right now and we have to adapt much faster. The need is there and that’s what’s driving it.

Although Transdev is part of a global operation, it sees some distinct differences in Australia.

“One of the main differences versus most of the Western world's cities is that the population is growing much faster than in other cities. Growth of two to three per cent in cities is out of the norm,” says Lalande.

“It’s an opportunity. Since we are growing we need to invest more. The beauty of that is that while others have old infrastructure, we can build the latest and greatest. Instead of having something 100 to 150 years old we can have modern infrastructure.”

Apart from the existing transport choices, and growing infrastructure, Transdev is also tracking the changes in the younger generations of travelers and the likely move away from private cars for commuting.

“All the indicators are pointing … to people using shared assets, whether that’s bicycles or trains. With mobility as a service, it will be easier to figure this out.

“The younger generation not happy tying lot of money up in an asset [car] they use for three per cent of the time. It’s a very heavy tendency that we’re going to see for the next 10 years at least.

“If you look at the world of transport, everything that is happening right now is going to be the most significant change since the train became the mode of transport.”