Nevomo, Hansebahn Bremen (joint venture of rail logistics expert Captrain Deutschland) and steel company ArcelorMittal Bremen, are launching a joint pilot project for automated freight transport on the Bremen factory.
The project will start in December 2024 and should achieve full automation within three years. The pilot will be run under the name ‘BREMAG - Bremen Magnetic Shuttle’ and will focus on the transport of steel coils between production sites. HBB is responsible for organising and implementing rail transport on the 100 kilometre-long rail infrastructure.
"The automation of transport and shunting services offers great potential for increasing the efficiency of rail freight transport", says Jonas Tesch, managing director of HBB and continues: "It will allow us to carry out transport operations more frequently, more reliably and more flexibly and improve our carbon footprint by reducing the use of diesel locomotives.ů
The project uses Nevomo's MagRail Booster technology which integrates linear motor technology into existing rail infrastructure, enabling autonomous, fully-automated operation of freight wagons without the need to use locomotives. Specifically, retrofitting existing rail infrastructure includes installing an active linear motor stator and equipping wagons with specially developed linear motors. This will allow the railcars to move autonomously and be controlled by a magnetic field.
"We are convinced that that the innovation in traction by replacing locomotives with linear motor-powered self-propelled wagons combined with the Rail-as-a-Service (RaaS) business model holds the key to significantly reducing the carbon footprint of logistics on a global scale," explains Przemek Ben Paczek, CEO of Nevomo.
BREMAG demonstrates the feasibility of automating rail transport with linear motors and has a total budget of around €6 million. The project is supported by German federal programmes.
