Russia expands autonomous-tram trials to two more regions

Russia has expanded its experimental operating regime for highly automated rail vehicles to Nizhny Novgorod and Sverdlovsk regions. The Transport Ministry announced the change on 22 October; previously the experiment covered only Moscow and St Petersburg.

The Verkhnyaya Pyshma tram line in Sverdlovsk region is joining the programme. The line connects Yekaterinburg and Verkhnyaya Pyshma and, according to the ministry, opened in 2022 as the country’s first intermunicipal line of this type.

The ministry said a digital tram depot has been established there as a technical base for autonomous-system testing. Its announcement does not give a date for passenger service or for commercial driverless operations on the new route.

The experiment covers two operating modes. One has a test driver in the cab who does not normally control the vehicle but can take over in an unusual situation; the second allows the tram to move with no one in the cab.

Participants have planned mileage indicators for the third year of the regime. The ministry says these are intended to support reliability assessment in real operating conditions, but the announcement does not publish the numerical mileage targets.

Ministry and advisory-council representatives say testing across different infrastructure, traffic conditions and weather should broaden the evidence base. Those are stated aims; the release reports no completed safety or service-outcome evaluation.

The change is an expansion of the experimental legal regime, not an announcement that driverless service has started in the two newly covered regions. The ministry describes the experiment as a way to test highly automated rail vehicles under a defined legal framework and in stages. It distinguishes the supervised configuration, where a test driver can intervene in abnormal track situations, from operation without anyone in the cab.

Verkhnyaya Pyshma gives the trial a route between municipalities rather than a line contained within one city network. That matters to the test design because the ministry and its quoted transport researchers say the route exposes the system to different infrastructure and operating conditions. The announcement offers no timetable for trials or passengers, no fleet count, no results from prior Moscow and St Petersburg tests, and no numerical mileage target for year three.

The ministry says third-year mileage indicators have been set for participants, but it does not publish the figures. It presents mileage accumulation as one input to reliability assessment in real operating conditions, alongside data from normal and non-standard situations. That distinction prevents the programme’s stated test objective from being mistaken for proof that autonomous trams already meet a particular safety threshold.

The regional expansion also adds a different weather and traffic context to the evidence base, according to a public council representative quoted in the release. The department’s rationale is that performance should be checked across different urban transport systems before considering wider adoption. The release does not identify which system suppliers are involved, how the data will be independently evaluated or when the regime will produce a formal decision on deployment.