MOSCOW, January 19 Russian Railways will launch a completely unmanned train on the MCC in 2026, it will be developed on the platform of the Russian rolling stock «Finist» «, said Russian Railways General Director Oleg Belozerov and a company representative.
“This summer we will launch a train with unmanned driving at level 3A here in Moscow on the MCC. The next stage — a completely unmanned train, we plan to launch in 2026. Some of the shift is due to the fact that the Finist — a completely replaced electric train — has literally just appeared , and we, accordingly, are now attaching the necessary equipment to it, which we have already developed,” Belozerov said, speaking at the “Russia” forum.
«A train with the highest fourth level of automation will be developed on the platform of the ES104 Finist train, which is currently undergoing controlled operation,» Russian Railways clarified.
Russian Railways have been working on the unmanned Lastochka project for several years. At the end of August 2019, the company for the first time demonstrated an unmanned Lastochka at the test ring in Shcherbinka, which automatically braked in front of a dummy on the tracks. In April 2023, one driver-operator remotely drove two trains at once as part of an experiment on the MCC. This was a global debut.
Russian Railways plan to begin test transportation of passengers by unmanned “Swallows” on the MCC in mid-2024, but the driver will remain in the cab for now, Belozerov said in an interview. This is the so-called third level.
Russian Railways are working on a passenger train without a driver in the cab, Belozerov said at the time. This is the fourth level of automation, which assumes that the driver-operator is no longer in the train cabin, but controls it remotely. The Lastochka train was produced by the Russian Sinara group together with the German concern Siemens. However, the Russian company began producing completely Russian analogues of the Lastochka with the name Finist.