Russia tests virtual coupling on BAM diesel freight locomotives

Russian-built 3TE28 diesel freight locomotives have completed tests of virtual coupling on the Baikal-Amur Mainline, manufacturer Transmashholding said on 13 November. The system had previously coordinated trains hauled by electric locomotives. Applying it to diesel locomotives extends the technology to a different part of the railway network.

The Bryansk Machine-Building Plant makes the locomotives. Trials took place on the Tynda-Berkakit section with train weights ranging from 1,600 to 6,300 tonnes. According to the manufacturer, the following locomotive ran in fully automated mode and the interval between trains travelling in the same direction was reduced to the minimum achievable in the trial.

The tests included integrating the locomotive's electrodynamic brake with the train's pneumatic brakes, with the system controlling the operating modes as intended. The automatic-driving project is being developed by Russian Railways' traction directorate with railway research company NIIAS and AVP Technology, part of TMH Intelligent Systems.

Machine vision had also been tested on the 3TE28 in spring 2026. The manufacturer sees machine vision and virtual coupling as parts of a wider set of systems for highly automated and eventually unmanned rail movement. That is a development pathway, not confirmation that all BAM freight trains are now driverless.

Russian Railways plans to equip five 3TE28 locomotives already in service by the end of 2026 and move to wider deployment in 2027. The longer-term aim is to cover all diesel locomotives on the BAM. These are plans, not completed fleet totals. The announcement gives no independently verified percentage gain in line capacity from these trials.