CAF selected Teleste’s on-board systems for the Docklands Light Railway in London

Teleste will deliver its on-board systems to CAF’s trains for the Docklands Light Railway by Transport for London. According to the contract between Teleste and CAF, the deliveries will take place in 2021-2023, and they will cover passenger information, public address and CCTV systems as well as ultrawide TFT displays of the newest type to 43 5-car driverless light metro trains, the first of which will enter commercial service in 2023.

With its annual passenger count reaching 122 million, the Docklands Light Railway in East London is the busiest light rail network in the UK. The new trains will add capacity to the network by up to 30%, thus supporting the continuously growing number of public transport users, further jobs and homes in the area. Additionally, the trains will offer passengers an improved travel experience by increasing the availability of real-time travel information, which is one of the key functionalities enabled by Teleste’s passenger information system.

“We are excited about the opportunity to contribute to the development of the Docklands Light Railway, one of the largest automated transport networks in the world. As the network continues to grow in terms of the number of passengers and transit frequency, state-of-the-art technologies are needed to guarantee a safe and secure journey as well as the high availability of information for passengers on moving trains. Our on-board systems are designed to address this challenge and also provide transit personnel with flexible tools for the remote management and control of information and situations on-board,” says Jarkko Vehkala, Head of the Rolling Stock Manufacturers business line at Teleste.

An elemental part of Teleste’s delivery will be software and applications for the management and distribution of passenger information and other types of content, such as advertisements. These allow the operator’s personnel to manage the information and content displayed on moving vehicles remotely. The staff at the operation centre can, for example, utilise a special advertisement database generator to create content playlists and schedule how they are shown to passengers on board.

The included mobile application, in turn, allows staff to call moving trains, give train announcements, and even respond to any possible emergency calls coming from the trains. When there is a need for visual travel information, high visibility is guaranteed by Teleste’s TFT displays with an ultrawide design. The entire system is seamlessly integrated to support reliable, real-time connectivity between moving trains and the ground system, which is an essential requirement of a modern, automated transport infrastructure where trains run without a driver from one station to another.