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I have been following the progress of the Transrapid high-speed maglev monorail system in Germany via its website for some years. The technology is amazing, with a propulsion system with no moving parts, other than the trains themselves. I had a thread on JC about it some time ago.
So I was saddened to hear of the tragic accident involving one of the experimental trains, in which 23 people died. I fear this might be a setback from which the project might not recover, despite there being a commercial Transrapid system operating in China. For all the high tech, the accident was caused by a simple error, a collision with a maintenance vehicle.
Bass
Listening to PM this afternoon, it was made out to be the Maglev at fault.
Whereas the reality was a tragic accident with a service wagon- however is there a suggestion the death toll is higher becuase of the type of train? Or that the accident may not have been as severe if the train had been standard?
I think there has been too much money sunk into this innovation to let it fade away but it may delay a large scale roll out
Why is everyone so obssessed with speed, seems everything has to go faster and faster, pushing the boundaries more and more. The human cost of 23 lives lost.
Richard Hammond is it? The presenter from top gear, almost another statistic to high speeds this week.
@tommy wrote:
@cas wrote:
Why is everyone so obssessed with speed, seems everything has to go faster and faster, pushing the boundaries more and more. The human cost of 23 lives lost.
Richard Hammond is it? The presenter from top gear, almost another statistic to high speeds this week.
You moan if we’re too slow… you say we’re boring in bed!
I wouldn’t know if you were boring in bed Tom :wink:The train hit a maintenance vehicle while travelling at 120 mph (much below its maximum speed). If a normal high-speed train hit something of a similar size at that speed the scale of the accident would be similar – as has happened in the past.
The thing about the Transrapid was (hopefully still will be) that it could travel at 250+ mph, copletely smoothly, using less energy than a wheeled train – fast enough to compete with civil aviation over medium distances, taking into account travel times to and from airports and passenger processing times. Sadlly, planes crash too, of course. No form of transport can be guaranteed to be safe.
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