Pilotless taxis presented at the international exhibition “ElectroTrans”

Last weekend, unmanned taxis, modernized electric buses, eco-friendly trams and other innovative public transport rushed to the Expocentre on Krasnaya Presnya – there within Russian week of public transport worked 11th international exhibition “ElectroTrans”. This year the focus is on import substitution.

The purpose of the exhibition is to provide an effective communication platform for communication between specialists interested in the preservation and development of urban electric transport – from electric trains to electric scooters. All over the world and in our country, commercial, service and personal electric vehicles are actively developing, more and more charging stations for electric vehicles are being built. Public transport, primarily rail transport, is the basis of the transport network of a modern city. Electric public transport operates in 500+ cities around the world. There are 7 subways and more than 100 tram and trolleybus enterprises in our country. 75% of the population of Russia use public transport, the annual passenger flow of which is 18.7 billion trips.

The jubilee, five thousandth trolleybus of the Belarusian manufacturer was presented at the exhibition. The hero of the day will work in the northern capital. Belarusian Holding is a longtime partner of St. Petersburg. These trolleybuses are equipped with increased autonomous travel and a special system for blind passengers. For their convenience, a special application has been developed that activates sound signals in the passenger compartment and in the driver’s cab. Maria Romashova, head of the all-Russian project “Talking City”, said: “A blind person, when standing at a bus stop, does not know what transport is approaching. With the help of the application, he will receive all the necessary information and will be able to signal the driver to board and activate the signal on the door to find it and get in on his own.”

144 organizations are represented at the exposition, not only from Russia, but also from other countries. Information stands, the machines themselves and the business program are of interest not only to managers and specialists of urban public transport enterprises, but also to experts in design organizations, suppliers and, of course, officials, because this is primarily a platform for dialogue between business and government, and therefore for the conclusion new contracts to develop urban transport.

Each of the companies strives to show the product in person. Tulmashzavod, for example, brought a whole family of “Ants” – these are electric-powered golf carts that have already found application in the capital region – they transport guests of the River Station and other parks. Tulmashzavod has been producing its “Ants” for more than a year, and at this exhibition it presented equipment with a new design and expanded functionality. Freight and passenger electric vehicles are already operating in different regions of Russia, in the near future the Tula company plans to only increase its fleet.

Electric public transport – tram (LRT), trolleybus, electric bus, metro, funicular, monorail, cable car, string transport, city and suburban electric trains, and more recently – electric river boats – this is the most effective way to ensure mobility and sustainable development of the urban economy. Very soon, it will dominate in the traffic flow of cities along with electric vehicles, municipal and service electric vehicles, means of small electric mobility (electric bicycle, scooter, gyro scooter, etc.), non-motor types of mobility.

Nikolai Asaul, General Director of State Unitary Enterprise Mosgortrans, noted: “There are a lot of developments, we plan to analyze everything very carefully – everything that is presented here – and implement it in our daily work. It is very important for us to maintain the level of security, the quality of fault tolerance after testing. With great pleasure we will purchase Russian products that meet a high quality standard. In total, the exhibition presents dozens of unique developments – electric motorcycles, bicycles, pickups and even trucks – which will soon be seen not only at the exhibition, but also on the streets of many Russian cities.”

Within the framework of the exhibition, a competition was held for promising developments for public transport “Green Light 2022”. Purpose of the competition — identify and note new developments, the implementation of which is beneficial from a technical and economic point of view. The competition pays special attention to import substitution issues, shows those product samples and technical solutions in the field of materials, components and systems that in the near future can have a positive impact on the development of public transport, increase its safety, comfort, operational and consumer properties.

The key priority of Moscow’s investment program is the development of the Moscow Metro. The share of the capital accounts for 100% of the supply of electric buses, 90% of metro cars, 85% of suburban electric trains, 70% of trams. In 2019 – 2021 57.9 km of metro lines, 21 stations and 3 electric depots were put into operation. It is planned to build overpasses, bridges, tunnels (84 objects in total), 325 kilometers of roads, 55 transport hubs. 139 billion rubles allocated for the development of commuter rail links. Moscow is the first city in our country to use electric buses. Since 2018, the city has been purchasing 300 electric buses annually. According to M.S. Liksutov, Deputy Mayor in the Moscow Government, “the transition to electric buses in Moscow is a new stage in the development of ground passenger transport rolling stock. The results of the development of this technology will be used by the city for decades.”

OUR REFERENCE. The investment potential of the electric transport and metro industry is about 200-250 billion rubles. annually. The volume of subsidies to support passenger transportation is about 70 billion rubles. annually (65% of them go to the modernization of commuter rail links). The transport strategy of Russia until 2030 assumes an increase in the share of trips by public transport in the largest agglomerations of the country by 15% compared to 2019. In addition, it provides for the active introduction of digital services. It is expected that by 2035 the proportion of passengers using biometric identification on suburban, intercity and international transportation will be 80%. In the structure of urban and suburban transportation, the national average share of the subway is 16%, suburban electric trains 9%, tram and trolleybus traffic – 7% each. By 2024, Russia plans to produce at least 25,000 electric vehicles and open more than 9,000 charging stations for them.

Mikhail Kovalyov.

Author’s photo