6. Electrohydraulic brake

The progress made by electro-pneumatic braking in terms of response time has proved insufficient in some applications. These applications mainly concern tramways, due to their particular operating mode which requires them to operate in the middle of traffic and in pedestrian areas, and some metros operating under full automatic control (without a driver).

From the mid-1980s onwards, tramways also faced the problem of improving accessibility. The response to this problem took the form of lowering the floor to the minimum height authorized by the gauge, which greatly reduced the space available for the installation of technical equipment, and moved most of it to the roof. As far as brakes are concerned, this meant that very compact equipment had to be created, particularly at bogie level, while braking forces had to be maintained or even increased in order to meet...