China Railway Signal & Communication Co, the country’s railway control systems provider, is expected to put its first driverless subway into trial operation next year, Zhang Zhihui, chief engineer of the company, said at a meeting on Nov 22.

The line will use CRSC’s self- developed CBTC (Communication Based Train Control) system, with which subway could run without driver full-time on the whole journey.

CRSC works to achieve fully automatic operation for the whole controlling system in the years to come, he added.

Zhang said that driverless technology will help to reduce human resources, given high requirement on reliability and stability of devices, while Xinhua cited engineers and automation experts that the automated operation system will avoid accidents caused by misjudgment or operational errors by controllers.

As to track safety, head of CRSC’s solely funded subsidiary — Beijing National Railway Research & Design Institute of Signal & Communication Co, Wang Hailong told China Daily website that the quality of CRSC’s products is guaranteed from the beginning of research and development to operation and maintenance, and the overall process goes through analysis and assessment in the company’s laboratory.

The company has independently developed CTCS-3 (China Train Control System-3) and CBTC to manage high-speed train and urban rail transit operations respectively. And it also participated in more than 20 overseas projects, including Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway in Indonesia.