Docklands Light Railway. A revolution in railway engineering

The Docklands Light Railway, which opened in August 1987, is the first railway specifically designed for distributed-microprocessor control. The capability of light-rail vehicles to run around tight curves is fully exploited as is their ability to climb steep gradients. At present there are 11 vehicles, nine are in service and two are on standby. The operation of the railway depends on two automatic systems: the automatic train operation (ATO) system drives the train from station to station and the automatic train protection system supervises the railway, ensuring that trains observe speed limits and only proceed when safe to do so