German (Transrapid) magnetic train derails, killing one...

[DRoseDARs]

The thing here is airlines and existing rail tech companies have a vested interest in keeping the status quo: The more transportation expands, the more money they make, especially if they can't keep pace - there'll always be demand with few alternatives for supply. Transrapid (and the major competing maglev tech in Japan) are emerging techs developed independant of the existing transportation industry. An analogy would be alternative fuel sources vs. the energy industry as a whole. The energy companies have had plenty of decades to develope meaningful alternatives to their products, but instead chose to drag their heels and pinch every last penny out of fossil fuels. Now we have independant companies sprouting up developing new techs and the energy industry is resisting. The airlines and rail companies have similar resistance.

[VetLegion]

Not really. Rail companies are owned by the state, so they don't give a crap about technology this way or the other.

[techumseh]

No? Why not?

[VetLegion]

Rail companies are not for profit ventures. They're government owned. They don't care about competition enough to sabotage it. And maglev is not competition anyway.

Anyway, here is some great French technology:

[DRoseDARs]

Erm, I believe US rail companies are privately owned.

[KrazyHorse]

AMTRAK?

[:) Smiley]

US freight railroads are private and profitable, Amtrak is technically private but recieves big subsidies to keep it out of bankruptcy.

[DRoseDARs]

AP article with photos. Jesus, the thing was obliterated!

Link to photos:
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/060923/4...206germancrash;_ylt=Auz3Ez9.1ePUbQmDuApu_fVbbBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3bG k2OHYzBHNlYwN0bXA-

Link to accompanying article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060923/ap_on_re_eu/germany_train_accident

Experts probe deadly German train crash

By MELISSA EDDY, Associated Press Writer 21 minutes ago

LATHEN, Germany - German prosecutors brought in technical experts Saturday to help them probe why a high-speed magnetic train crashed into a maintenance vehicle on a closed, elevated test track, killing 23 people.
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The wreck of the Transrapid train sat atop its elevated guideway near Lathen in northwestern Germany as investigators gathered evidence before a visit and news conference by Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee.

The Transrapid uses maglev technology, short for magnetic levitation, in which the train skims over its guideway on powerful magnetic fields without touching a track. That cuts friction and enables speeds up to 270 mph.

Initial indications were that human error, not sophisticated maglev technology, was to blame for putting the maintenance vehicle on the track at the same time as the Transrapid train, prosecutors and company officials said.

The train was going about 125 mph with 29 people aboard when it struck the maintenance vehicle, hurling it up and into the roof and upper part of the train.

Police spokesman Ewald Temmen said prosecutors would go over the scene Saturday with technical experts while investigators sought to identify all the victims. They included American Ernest Lieb, 66, a martial arts expert from Muskegon, Mich., who was visiting his native Germany to conduct a seminar on karate.

Other victims have not been publicly identified. Officials said they included workers for utility RWE, Transrapid International, the company that makes the train, and a nursing service. The 20-mile track, operated by Munich-based IABG, is mainly used to show off maglev technology, but tourists are allowed to ride the train as well.

One IABG employee was killed, said local councilor Harmann Roering. "I know he has ridden it more than 50 times," Roering said. Another victim was a single mother of a 16-year-old daughter who was not aboard.

Roering said people in the region, where some 300 jobs depend on the maglev facility, were shaken by the tragedy. He underscored "how important the Transrapid project is for the region. There are many small and medium-sized businesses that have developed and their existence comes from the facility."

Maglev technology has been around for years, and Germany has been eager to export the Transrapid, whose maker is a joint company between industrial giants Siemens AG and ThyssenKrupp. But the technology has not caught on even as high-speed train service has expanded using the conventional wheels-and-rails approach. Concerns have included the expense of building new lines.

The Chinese city of Shanghai has the world's only commercially operating maglev train. Officials in Germany are studying the possibility of a line between Munich and its airport. Japan has been experimenting for years with a maglev line that has clocked a record top speed of 361 mph.

[Proteus_MST]

Of course,
after all there is not much in a MagLev-Train.
Everything is lightweight and as it has no engine
(as the engine for the train is for most parts in the railtracks)
the train is mostly just a lightweight shell surrounding a large passenger compartment.
The train normally isn´t meant to hit obstacles

As it is routine that the mainentance car drives along the tracks once a day IMHO there will be little doubt that the accident was caused by human failure (after all you should expect that the people who are responsible for starting the Transrapid know where the maintenance car is located). And in contrast to the Transrapid the maintenance car isn´t MagLev powered, had it been this way the accident never would have happened, but the maintenance car would have driven before the Transrapid in an short distance (for commercial Transrapid tracks there will be MagLev driven maintenance cars)

[Thue]

Originally posted by Smiley
US freight railroads are private and profitable, Amtrak is technically private but recieves big subsidies to keep it out of bankruptcy.

The same way that automobiles are subsidized when the government builds road for tax money?

[*End Is Forever*]

Looks like most of the passengers were in the front coach. The back two coaches seem pretty much intact, although a violent stop at 125mph would still cause some nasty injuries, if not worse for some people.

[Dis]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
AMTRAK?

they are partially supported by the goverment. But they are losing huge amounts of money

[Jon Miller]

The North Eastern section isn't

that is where they have talked about making it a seperate company

it really is a decent way to travel in the north east (I have heard)

JM

[Dis]

yeah, cities are close enough together to make it feasible.

It's really tough out west. I have an aunt who uses it. I think she's afraid to fly. But I don't think amtrack even comes to my city anymore (Las Vegas). I think she had to go to some other city, and take a bus to my city. Making the concept of a train ride silly. As buses are much worse transportation than a train.

I bet that is a majority of their customer base. People who are afraid to fly.

[Jon Miller]

I used one my first year of college. I think it was like $20 cheaper or something. Took 2-3 days longer.. which made my Christmas Vacation too short. So I flew from than on.

JM