##How rail infrastructure prevents crashes
How rail infrastructure prevents crashes
##How the design of a train prevents injuries in a crash
Other answerers pointed out that belts on seats are unfair for standing passengers which can't use them. Let me explain why trains are intrinsically infinitely safer than road vehicles and airplanes. Train safety is a full branch of rail engineering, and is obviously different from road, air and sea safety.
Please also take a read tomind reading Eurostat's official statistics for your convenience. (key numberindicator: 1742 casualties on 2016)
First, fornote on airplanes: seat belts are not there to protect people from crashes (beacause almost all air to ground impacts are fatalare fatal) but mainly to help protect them from turbulence ofor sudden deceleration during canceled takeoff and landing. Airlines don't want you to hit your head with your front passenger's seat during these events, because insurances don't like to pay damage.
In the above diagram, each traffic light is separated by block_length_here of rails. When a train enters a block, its preceeding light turns red and one (2x block), two (3x block) or more (3+x block) change colour according to regulation. Generally speaking, trains are allowed to drive green at max speed, are required to slow on yellow and must absolutely not enter a red because another train is physically driving in that block_lenght_here space. I have replaced figures with block_length_here for generality. The above is a general concept and each regulator defines the number of states and effective colours. E.g. a metro service may use only red/green code, or decide to close two blocks rear of the train.
Also, all trains on modern lines are required to equip safety devices that enforce emergency brake as soon as the train passes a red, or yellow too fast.
European Train Control System (ECTS)European Train Control System (ETCS) is an evolution of traditional block-system where there are no more lights and the train auto-regulates its speed according to the exact position of the preceeding convoy rather than on fixed space points. In that case, the driver doesn't even need to slow down as the train does electronically. He can see the distance to the next obstacle/joinpoint/station/whatever on his display
On front crashes, the driver is normally the first victim and hopefully the only casualty, because normallythe majority of trains (I would take Sweden and Denmark immediately out from this list because all their rolling stock have distributed engine power) are pulled by a front engine car, which absorbs mosta large part of the impact.
Note that the force of impact is not equally distributed to through the length of convoy, but is puposefully designed to dissipate through the front parts. I am simply saying that passengers seating/standing on the middle of the train will be shocked by the deceleration but very unlikely at a fatal force.
About derailments, trains are also designed to limit the number of derailed cars. Consider for example Alstom's AGV trains (slide #20) that feature the wheelsengine-and-coupler-wheels between two carriages: the manufacturer stated that this design technique, while increasing maintenance costs by not allowing to detachdecouple a car on the railsrail, allows to dramaticallyconsisently recuce the likelihood of thea derailed car to flip on its axis.
Other answerers pointed out that belts on seats are unfair for standing passengers which can't use them. Let me explain why trains are intrinsically infinitely safer than road vehicles and airplanes.
Please also take a read to Eurostat's official statistics (key number: 1742 casualties on 2016)
First, for airplanes: seat belts are not there to protect people from crashes (beacause almost all air to ground impacts are fatal) but mainly to protect them from turbulence of sudden deceleration during canceled takeoff and landing. Airlines don't want you to hit your head with your front passenger's seat during these events.
Also, all trains on modern lines are required to equip safety devices that enforce emergency brake as soon as the train passes a red, or yellow too fast.
European Train Control System (ECTS) is an evolution of traditional block-system where there are no more lights and the train auto-regulates its speed according to the exact position of the preceeding convoy rather than on fixed space points. In that case, the driver doesn't even need to slow down as the train does.
On front crashes, the driver is normally the first victim and hopefully the only casualty, because normally trains (I would take Sweden and Denmark immediately out from this list) are pulled by a front engine car, which absorbs most of the impact.
Note that the force of impact is not equally distributed to the convoy, but is puposefully designed to dissipate through the front parts. I am simply saying that passengers seating/standing on the middle of the train will be shocked by the deceleration but very unlikely at a fatal force.
About derailments, trains are also designed to limit the number of derailed cars. Consider for example Alstom's AGV trains that feature the wheels between two carriages: the manufacturer stated that this design technique, while increasing maintenance costs by not allowing to detach a car on the rails, allows to dramatically recuce the likelihood of the derailed car to flip.
Other answerers pointed out that belts on seats are unfair for standing passengers which can't use them. Let me explain why trains are intrinsically infinitely safer than road vehicles and airplanes. Train safety is a full branch of rail engineering, and is obviously different from road, air and sea safety.
Please mind reading Eurostat's official statistics for your convenience. (key indicator: 1742 casualties on 2016)
First, note on airplanes: seat belts are not there to protect people from crashes (beacause almost all air to ground impacts are fatal) but mainly to help protect them from turbulence or sudden deceleration during canceled takeoff and landing. Airlines don't want you to hit your head with your front passenger's seat during these events, because insurances don't like to pay damage.
In the above diagram, each traffic light is separated by block_length_here of rails. When a train enters a block, its preceeding light turns red and one (2x block), two (3x block) or more (3+x block) change colour according to regulation. Generally speaking, trains are allowed to drive green at max speed, are required to slow on yellow and must absolutely not enter a red because another train is physically driving in that block_lenght_here space. I have replaced figures with block_length_here for generality. The above is a general concept and each regulator defines the number of states and effective colours. E.g. a metro service may use only red/green code, or decide to close two blocks rear of the train.
Also, all trains on modern lines are required to equip safety devices that enforce emergency brake as soon as the train passes a red, or yellow too fast.
European Train Control System (ETCS) is an evolution of traditional block-system where there are no more lights and the train auto-regulates its speed according to the exact position of the preceeding convoy rather than on fixed space points. In that case, the driver doesn't even need to slow down as the train does electronically. He can see the distance to the next obstacle/joinpoint/station/whatever on his display
On front crashes, the driver is normally the first victim and hopefully the only casualty, because the majority of trains (I would take Sweden and Denmark immediately out from this list because all their rolling stock have distributed engine power) are pulled by a front engine car, which absorbs a large part of the impact.
Note that the force of impact is not equally distributed to through the length of convoy, but is puposefully designed to dissipate through the front parts. I am simply saying that passengers seating/standing on the middle of the train will be shocked by the deceleration but very unlikely at a fatal force.
About derailments, trains are also designed to limit the number of derailed cars. Consider for example Alstom's AGV trains (slide #20) that feature engine-and-coupler-wheels between two carriages: the manufacturer stated that this design technique, while increasing maintenance costs by not allowing to decouple a car on the rail, allows to consisently recuce the likelihood of a derailed car to flip on its axis.