Moscow plans to test automated trams on several routes during 2024, with a driver present. Deputy mayor Maxim Liksutov outlined the plan in an Avtoradio interview, Interfax reported on 2 February. The announcement describes a proposed test programme in Russia; it does not report the start of passenger operations without a driver.
The tram programme and the metro are different projects
- The tram trials were planned for the current year, 2024.
The fleet preceding the trial plan
In a 3 November 2023 transport-department announcement, Liksutov reported more than 500 modern one-section and three-section trams supplied by PC Transport Systems. He put renewal of Moscow’s tram fleet at 95%. The first three-section Vityaz-Moscow vehicles entered route 17 in March 2017.
Those figures describe ordinary fleet renewal before the automated trial announcement. They do not count automated vehicles or mean that 95% of trams could operate without drivers. New rolling stock and a new control system are separate elements of the city’s programme.
Domestic production before automation
An earlier 17 February 2023 department release put domestic components in the supplied PC Transport Systems trams at 90%. It described low-floor vehicles with climate control, multimedia screens, phone-charging outlets and space for pushchairs and bicycles. The city then planned another 150 vehicles over three years, with a further increase in production localisation.
This preceding procurement programme explains the rolling-stock setting for Liksutov’s February 2024 plan. Its component share concerns vehicle manufacturing; it is not a measured share of the automated control software or proof that the proposed route trials had already occurred.
