Trams, depots and the road to automation: FP2-R2DATO concludes
Trams, depots and the road to automation: FP2-R2DATO concludes
After 46 months, the FP2-R2DATO project reaches the end of its journey in autumn of 2026. This was Flagship Project 2 of Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, coordinated by SNCF and funded under Horizon Europe.
The scope of the project’s work included mainline, regional, freight, and urban rail, aiming to increase capacity, punctuality and reliability while making the deployment of digital and automated rail technologies faster and more affordable.
The starting point was demand. With more passengers and more freight expected in the near future on networks that are already busy, FP2-R2DATO set out to use digitalisation and automation to develop the next generation of automatic train control and to deliver scalable digital and automatic, up to autonomous, train and tram capabilities that get more out of the infrastructure Europe already has.
The work covered automatic train and tram operation, ETCS hybrid level 3 and level 3 moving block, digital technologies including 5G connectivity and a standardised onboard ICT platform, and guidelines and methods for fast and cost-effective deployment and migration across Europe. A dedicated strand focused on trams and light rail, where automation follows a different path: street running and mixed traffic rather than ETCS and moving block.
Demonstrators such as Oslo took these technologies into the live urban setting. Throughout, the project was aware of the risks that can stall deployment and worked to address them. Some of these risks include public acceptance, synchronisation with ETCS rollout, and unresolved legal questions, among other potential obstacles.
UITP’s role throughout was to keep the urban rail voice in the room. Working closely with the UITP R2DATO Working Group, we helped structure operational use cases, supported the identification of common requirements, and made sure the practical realities of tram and light rail deployment sat alongside those of mainline railway automation. That work is now gathered in the Project Insight publication available for download at the bottom of this page.
Why trams need their own pathway
Tram and light rail systems sit between the railway and the urban road environment. They follow a fixed rail guideway and operate as part of a public transport network, but in many cities, they also share space with pedestrians, cyclists, and road traffic.
That creates a very different automation challenge from a fully segregated metro or a mainline railway, and it is why the path to tram automation cannot simply copy either model.
The project also confirmed something operators already suspected: the sheer diversity of tram networks is itself a deployment issue. Operational rules, depot layouts, street running conditions, signalling and regulatory frameworks differ widely between cities and countries, and a fully customised solution for every network would be slow and expensive. Thus, the focus was on common use cases and modular functions that can be standardised wherever possible.
Automation as a sequence, not a leap
Fundamentally from the perspective of the project, for tram and light rail, automation should be understood as a progressive deployment rather than a single jump to driverless operation in urban traffic.
The project sets out two objectives for trams: remote operations and autonomous functions within the defined depot area. Both are part of a longer-term progression. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems represent the state of the art today, supporting the driver with alerts, obstacle detection and signal awareness.
The next step that follows is speed support and decision assistance with the driver still responsible for safe operation. Depot operations follow, and further ahead lies highly assisted driving in passenger service under more complex conditions.
Depots are a natural place to begin. They are operationally critical yet far more controllable than open street environments, and they are full of repetitive movements: shunting, washing, inspections and vehicle preparation. The priority of use cases reflects that.
Remote shunting and parking cuts walking and shunting time, remote washing reduces repetitive tasks for staff, pre departure readiness checks make start of service more reliable, and automated inspection improves the consistency of technical checks.
Given the complexity of autonomous driving in non-segregated zones, a driverless tram in the city is not the most feasible short-term solution. The realistic gain lies in automating specific functions that remove friction from daily operations and build a safe learning path towards higher automation.
What Oslo showed
The main urban rail demonstrator ran in Oslo, implemented by Sporveien Trikken and CAF on the CAF platform for the SL18 Urbos trams. It brought together automated train operation, environmental perception, vehicle to everything communication, safe train localisation, remote driving, modular automated functions and digital twin support.
Two depots were used, and the pairing was deliberate. Holtet is open air and exposed to the weather, while Grefsen is covered, meaning different constraints for positioning and connectivity. Testing across both helped establish whether the enabling technologies stay robust in genuinely different conditions.
The demonstrator also underlined how much of this work is really about data. Cameras, sensors, and onboard systems collect information to support object and signal recognition and to build simulations and 3D models, which in turn requires clear data protection, cybersecurity and public communication measures.
Regulation is the next frontier
Technology maturity is only half of the picture. The Oslo work showed that talking early to safety authorities, infrastructure managers and public transport authorities is essential, backed by clear operational procedures, robust safety assessments, and a well-defined approval strategy.
It also highlighted that approval frameworks for automated tramways remain underdeveloped. In Norway for instance, testing in closed depots could proceed under the existing framework precisely because automated functions were not used in passenger service or on the public network.
On show in Berlin
The project also gets a final public outing. InnoTrans takes place in Berlin from 22 to 25 September, and FP2-R2DATO features a live demonstration at the CAF and Europe’s Rail stands, including a dedicated timeslot for demonstrator activities and a direct exchange with the project’s lead demonstrator.
Please refer to the InnoTrans website and the floorplan to help navigate your way along the exhibition grounds. Members of the UITP Light Rail Committee will attend in person, giving them the chance to see the digitalisation and automation work up close. UITP is present at the fair with a booth in Hall 7.1B, stand 330, shared with the Local Host of Hamburg.
FP2-R2DATO is coming to an end, but the direction it set does not. UITP and the members of its Light Rail Committee will continue to work on tram and light rail automation, going deeper into passenger service use cases and keeping operators aligned on the common requirements that make automation deployable.