Technology and the safety of Train as a means of transport and logistics

 The documentary by PBS Nova “Why Trains Crash?” was a journey of reason and surprises for me. The director leaves no place for the audience to lose interest and conveys some very serious ideas and problems in well-organized manner. The start of the documentary gives and impression that trains after even such advancements in technology are susceptible to accidents which can bring harm not only to the passengers but also to the people around. A train carrying crude oil if blasts the impact radius can be up to miles. So “are trains safe?” is a question the need in depth evaluation of some arguments before getting answered. When it comes to train safety the fact to remember is that the measure to ensure that no accidents happen are still in the hands of humans. Humans can make error. The perfect example of this is served right to us in the documentary when the narrator discusses the Chatsworth train collision where two trains collided head on since the engineer in the train was “texting” and missed the signal to switch the tracks. Such accidents due to human errors can happen in other means of transport as well but a train carries much more people than a mere truck, a car or even in some cases a plane. So with time engineers have deployed several things to make sure if such things happen the impact is reduced which are but not limited to making tables and seats in manner to absorbed shock and reduce injury and installing couplers in front and back of cards to reduce the impact of Collison. These measures indeed have improved the standards of safety but still a long road needs to be traveled to call this travel safe.

Train platform

            When it comes to logistics trains are mostly used to carry crude oil and fuels between the country and thus their crash can mean an explosion. We can really use the example of the Canadian tragedy here. The Lac-Megantic rail disaster. The disaster was again a result of human error and thus resulted in a whole main street being wiped out of the map.

            The trend here to observe is that train accidents that have been reported so far have a great number of those which could be prevented but were caused by human error. So thus, in order to make trains safer we need to work more toward automatic technologies such as the auto piolet in plans which can take some responsibilities of the hands of the operators. Sensors and automatics braking system can be used to detect if the route has some hinderance and stop the train. United States can for sure invest some more money in improving the safety technology by research on the above-mentioned stuff before working towards making more trains. Denver’s RTD lists a certain measure of safety they implement but I still see these technologies lacking. Trains can be real game changer for logistics and travel as they have a lot more capacity than other rivals. Thus, investing some money of making them safer is not a good but a needed action. China can server as a very good example here. Their rail system reeks of technological advancements which make it still the most widely used transport there. Learning and implement schemes that they use can help prevent such tragedies and make train travel much safer.

In conclusion, as of now it is hard for me to claim that US rail system is a safe way to travel. There are still many places in the system where a single human can cause a lot of damage. Thus, to improve it a more decentralized and technology based innovative solution such as the ones mentioned below are needed.