Arc Infrastructure is pleased to announce the successful mainline trial of the Hiivr Rail autonomous wagon this week in a world-first for the prototype.
The trials took place between Kenwick and Forrestfield, commencing from Arc’s Kenwick Rail Freight Facility (KRFF, the location of the Kenwick IMT), where the wagon is stored, and travelling on the mainline towards the Tonkin Highway road over rail bridge at Forrestfield, and is the first time the Hiivr Rail wagon has moved outside the KRFF onto the freight rail network.
The mainline trials were carefully planned to coincide with Arc’s 86-hour network shutdown, ensuring the trials could take place in a controlled and safe environment.
With the support of the Office of National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR), the mainline trials were conducted over two days on 1 – 2 October. Through this trial the project team were able to demonstrate the autonomous wagon successfully, completing a series of tests and trial runs between Kenwick and Forrestfield and reaching speeds of 30km/hr.
Key aspects of the trial included monitoring performance of the autonomous wagon over greater distances, on different grade profiles, and the connectivity of communications when travelling under road bridges.
Chief Executive Officer Murray Cook thanked the Hiivr Rail project team for their hard work in achieving this important milestone.
“Hiivr Rail is the evolution of freight in Western Australia, and since the prototype was unveiled in December last year our team has taken huge strides to enable the wagon to run safely on the mainline.
“This is the first time the prototype has successfully run on a mainline anywhere in the world, marking a huge milestone not only for Hiivr Rail but for the technology, and taking us a step closer to full operation.”
Designed with the future Westport in mind, the Hiivr Rail concept would see containers move directly from a vessel to a future network of intermodal freight terminals and be available to customers within hours of being unloaded from the vessel. Intermodal locations which have a constrained footprint would be unlocked by the Hiivr Rail wagon.
Hiivr Rail’s autonomous wagon leverages self-driving technology that is already being used all over the world and tailors it to the rail environment.
It will include technology which connects to logistics systems, providing safe, autonomous operations with real-time visibility of container movements.
The future Hiivr Rail fleet would be comprised of individual, battery-powered, autonomous wagons which can operate as a single wagon, or together as a fleet, reducing the number of trucks on the road as rail modal share increases.
Arc continues to progress Australian accreditation and work to develop a system for integrating the wagon’s technology with Arc’s train control system, another vital and exciting next step towards full operation.
For more information visit hiivr.com.au or see more in the video below:
