The Swiss SBB has become one of the first railway companies in Europe to carry out test runs with a remote-controlled locomotive during ongoing operations.
SBB said, in a statement on Wednesday, that the tests had been positive.
However, the company emphasised that there were no plans for self-driving passenger trains.
In the future, remote control could be used for short movements, such as maintenance work in tunnels, at construction sites, or for journeys from sidings to the departure track.
“The use of self-driving trains with passengers is still not a priority for SBB,’’ the company said.
“This is one of the first tests in Europe to be carried out during ongoing operations in a marshalling yard and not, as previously, on tracks away from other rail traffic,’’ it added.
During the test runs in the greater Zurich area, 24 train drivers directed a locomotive from a remote control panel.
They saw images in real time that were transmitted from various cameras on the locomotive.
The maximum speed was 30 kilometres per hour and there were train drivers on board the vehicles who could intervene if necessary.
