The three decades of automated metro operation around the world summarised in this brief demonstrate that full automation is a consolidated solution – one that brings many advantages to operators, authorities, and users. Fully automated metro lines offer increased safety, unrivalled reliability and the capacity to respond flexibly to surges in demand. For operators, automation has the potential to be a lever of change to develop new organisational models, enriching job profiles and more efficient maintenance and operation. Building on these strengths, metro operating companies are able to offer better service to their customers and respond efficiently to their increasingly changing mobility needs, raising the attractiveness of public transport and ultimately contributing to improving the quality of life in our cities.
Full automation brings therefore the opportunity to generate a step change for metro systems and a more sustainable urban mobility. The exponential growth trend observed in this report, set to quadruple in the coming decade, confirms that increasingly authorities and operators around the world are ready to take the leap towards this new referent in metro service and operation.