VAL – Automated People Mover
With Cityval and Airval, cities and airports benefit from a new generation of Automated People Mover (APM) trains, which offer high efficiency and availability for the lowest total cost of ownership. These VAL systems are designed with the latest automation and monitoring technology. They can be streamlined to align with civil works and are able to quickly adapt to changes in operating conditions.
With Cityval and Airval, cities and airports benefit from a new generation of Automated People Mover (APM) trains, which offer high efficiency and availability for the lowest total cost of ownership. These VAL systems are designed with the latest automation and monitoring technology. They can be streamlined to align with civil works and are able to quickly adapt to changes in operating conditions.
Automated People Mover with great passenger experience
A highly scalable, energy-efficient transportation system with optimized total cost of ownership
Modified for urban environments with Cityval and airport environments with Airval for airports, the new-generation VAL automated people mover is highly scalable to respond to the unique and ever-changing needs of these complex settings. Urban and airport transportation operators benefit from an optimized total cost of ownership: for example, the track is equipped with a single-rail central guidance system, and the electrical braking down to 0 km/h reduces energy consumption by up to 15%. Both Cityval and Airval are also capable of navigating steep gradients up to 8% and tight curves down to 30 m. Their interior design maximizes space so that more passengers can be transported in smaller vehicles. Smaller platforms and storage facilities are now sufficient.
Flexible operation and enhanced passenger experience
- More space onboard and spacious gangways for easy circulation between cars
- Width of 2.65 m or 2.80 m and unobstructed floors, even under the seats
- Large doors enable a fast passenger exchange at the station.
- Interactive displays with real-time information and passenger WiFi
- The system is highly flexible: The number of cars can be quickly changed to respond to high and low traffic conditions.
High safety and performance
- Outstanding availability up to 100%
- Reduced designed headways less than 60 seconds
- Maximum speeds of up to 80 km/h with adjustable acceleration
- A fully automated, driverless metro equipped with best-in-class Trainguard MT communication-based train control (CBTC) system
- Evacuation options through one central or two side-walkable paths along the concrete running surfaces
- Through data collection digitalization enables efficient maintenance including predictive maintenance
Intelligent system and services
- Machine learning based on data collection for predictive maintenance and virtual test track aims for 100% availability
- Advanced data analytics for enhanced performance and reduced operating costs
- Large panel of services for operation and maintenance and technical assistance
- Built-in cybersecurity solution
Sustainable value over the entire life cycle
- Electrical braking down to 0 km/h reduces energy consumption and guarantees low particle emission
- 95% recyclability of rolling stock
- Green depot design: rubble and waste management, demolition, and disposal
- Reduced noise and vibration levels
Enhanced passenger experience
- Real-time information and entertainment; on-board WIFI
- Passenger comfort: floor to ceiling glazing, generous lighting, reduced noise and vibration, air-conditioning, wide interior spaces, and flexible seat configuration
- Wide entrance doors: 1.95 m
- No steps for boarding or inside the train
- No technical equipment in the cars
Guaranteed availability
- Outstanding availability up to 100%, 24/7 service
- Best-in-class Trainguard MT CBTC system used on all GoA4 Siemens Mobility automation projects
- Reduced designed headways less than 60 seconds
- Highly flexible design allows for train configurations between two and nine cars
- It can navigate steep gradients of up to 8% and tight curves (down to 30 m in line) including on viaducts and in tunnels
Train configurations from two cars ...
... to nine cars
Vehicle data
- Length: 22.40 m for a 2-car train
- Width: 2.65 m or 2.80 m Â
- Train configurations from 2 to 9 carsÂ
- Number of doors per car: 2Â
- Number of seats per car: up to 24Â
- Trainguard MT CBTC technology
Acceleration and speed
- High acceleration (1.3 m/s²)
- Maximum speed: 80 km/h
- Electrical braking down to 0 km/h (energy savings; no particle emission)
Sustainability
- Cityval/Airval are 95% recyclable
- Green factory and depot design
- Operation between -25° C and +55° C
- Heated track
Rubber tires
- Higher-performance capacity/axle load
- Low noise and vibration levels
- Run-flat included
Streamlined design
- Lower weight
- Single-rail central guidance
- Rationalized switching footprint
- Minimized cabling
- Reduced energy consumption
At home in cities and airports
- Suited to tunnel, viaduct, and ground-level environments
- Flexibility across different operating modes
- Easily scalable for complex and fluctuating traffic conditions
- Maximized interior space
Discover the new VAL generation for cities and airports
Cityval: Perfectly suited to urban environments
The Cityval is a rubber-tired light metro system perfectly suited to handle the infrastructure requirements of high-density city environments. It offers solutions for tracks over viaducts, on ground-level, and in tunnel conditions alike. The Cityval adapts seamlessly to changing transportation capacity requirements and is easily scalable without disrupting the network. What's more, the new generation offers a lighter and more streamlined design with single-rail central guidance. This allows for optimized operating and maintenance costs as well as simplified civil works.
Cityval responds to urban transportation needs through:
- Reduced designed headways less than 60 seconds
- High commercial speed of up to 80 km/h
- Flexible capacity ranging from 2 500 up to 20 000 pphpd
- Easily handles sharp curves and steep gradients
Airval: Flexibility for airports
The Airval is an automated guideway transit (APM) system for heavy-traffic airport environments. Offering maximum flexibility across a number of operating modes, the Airval is designed to perform just as efficiently on airside as on landside, all with 24/7 availability. The streamlined design of the new generation features maximized interior space for the comfort of passengers with luggage.Â
Airval meets the requirements of modern airports through:
- 100% of interior space dedicated to passengers, with or without seats
- Metro-level safety standards applied to airportsÂ
- Up to 100% availability across all references
- High operating flexibility thanks to adaptable train length and reduced designed headways less than 60 seconds
The next-generation VAL in a nutshell:
Download the VAL brochure
Smart people-moving since 1983
Automated People Mover backed by over 30 years of experience
Over the decades, there have been many Automated People Mover systems from Siemens Mobility successfully set in motion around the world. Discover some of the important milestones, starting in 1983 in the French city of Lille with the original VAL (Véhicule automatique léger) platform for Line 1.
