Operation Control Centres – Community of Metros Benchmarking Group

Last week, 30 metro organisations gathered in Barcelona for the COMET 2025 Annual Meeting. Hosted by Barcelona TMB in celebration of the metro’s 100th anniversary, the event showcased their initiatives on system modernisation and automation. Attendees had the opportunity to visit the Operations Control Centre, Central Workshop, Driving Simulators, Historical Train Exhibition, and Automatic Line Workshop.

During the CEO/COO Day, the TSC highlighted five key trends impacting COMET metros in 2025. Metro executives engaged in discussions on infrastructure renewals, ridership and revenue, and environmental development with a particular focus on logistics services.

The breakout sessions on Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in metros sparked discussions and strong interest in the area. Metros shared their experiences with current AI implementations and explored future opportunities to leverage AI across metro operations.

The TSC extends its sincere thanks to all participating metros for their active engagement and valuable contributions throughout the meeting.

OCCs are central to metro operations, through monitoring the entire system and hosting critical decisions during service interruptions. Several metros report plans to upgrade, expand or integrate aspects of their OCC management to improve the level of service they can deliver. The study detailed the role of OCCs focusing on changes in that role brought about by technological advances.

There is a clear trend towards the centralisation of OCC organisational structures with the belief that a unified OCC will improve the efficiency of coordination and cooperation. One critical function of OCCs is serving as a data management centre. Therefore how often information is updated is key to collecting real-time data for OCC management and communications.

Real-time data management and station remote control technologies are emerging trends and identified areas of improvement. These are often linked with the introduction of greater automation. Increased levels of automation and remote control tend to reduce the routine workload on UTO lines. This means that UTO lines typically require fewer staff in daily operation but more experienced staff to handle incidents.

Community of Metros News: COMET 2025 Annual Meeting in Barcelona, 10-13 November

Research: Role of Operation Control Centres (OCCs)