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Dunno about the UK, but in the Netherlands we get news about major train accidents in surrounding countries and I don't think I've ever (well, maybe once or twi

by mtts 15y ago

Dunno about the UK, but in the Netherlands we get news about major train accidents in surrounding countries and I don't think I've ever (well, maybe once or twice) read about a TGV accident. ICE (German high speed rail) accidents, on the other hand, happen at least once every couple of years. Which I always find ironic because French sloppiness is as proverbial over here as German precision.

masklinn 15y ago
> I don't think I've ever (well, maybe once or twice) read about a TGV accident. There are accidents pretty regularly (thought not frequently, it's about once every two years). Most accidents are not really mentioned because they're level-crossing (some truck barreled through the level crossing on low-speed regional tracks, got stuck and the train smashed into it at 100~150km/h). The result is usually that the truck or car gets annihilated and the train is due for repairs. A more interesting incident type is the derailment (especially high-speed), and while that has happened several times the record of the TGV on these has been stellar: it was hinted at in the article, a TGV behaves very much like a solid object, it's a single coherent structure and the cars are very tightly bonded together (that's a major difference between TGV and ICE). As a result a TGV is extremely rigid, and in all derailments so far the derailment was partial (a bogie to a few cars) and the rigidity of the trainset is credited with keeping the train as a whole on the tracks even though some cars were not in contact. FWIW, TGV has the (dubious) award of highest-speed derailment from 1993: a trainset hit an unsupported rail section (a sinkhole had opened under a track after days of heavy rains resulting in a hole 7 meters long by 4 wide and 1.5m high) at 294km/h (185mph). 4 cars and the rear power unit derailed (a TGV trainset is 2 power units and 8 to 10 cars, this was a "TGV Réseau" trainset so 2/8, meaning half the train was off the rails), the train remained upright and managed to stop (over 2.3km). One passenger injury and one passenger was treated for shock.
- mtts 15y ago
  Yeah, I meant accidents involving derailment. Sorry if I was unclear. These happen quite frequently with ICE trains.
brazzy 15y ago
Actually, there has been exactly one fatal ICE accident. Unfortunately, that was also the worst high speed rail accident worldwide so far: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschede_train_disaster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschede_train_disaster A design error led to a mechanical failure, which caused a derailment at the worst possible location...
- Anechoic 15y ago
  The interesting thing about that disaster is that rail safety folks from both the US and Europe I've spoken to have all said that if it had been the Acela in that accident there would have been far fewer fatalities due to FRA crashworithness requirements.

by mtts 15y ago

masklinn 15y ago

> I don't think I've ever (well, maybe once or twice) read about a TGV accident. There are accidents pretty regularly (thought not frequently, it's about once every two years). Most accidents are not really mentioned because they're level-crossing (some truck barreled through the level crossing on low-speed regional tracks, got stuck and the train smashed into it at 100~150km/h). The result is usually that the truck or car gets annihilated and the train is due for repairs. A more interesting incident type is the derailment (especially high-speed), and while that has happened several times the record of the TGV on these has been stellar: it was hinted at in the article, a TGV behaves very much like a solid object, it's a single coherent structure and the cars are very tightly bonded together (that's a major difference between TGV and ICE). As a result a TGV is extremely rigid, and in all derailments so far the derailment was partial (a bogie to a few cars) and the rigidity of the trainset is credited with keeping the train as a whole on the tracks even though some cars were not in contact. FWIW, TGV has the (dubious) award of highest-speed derailment from 1993: a trainset hit an unsupported rail section (a sinkhole had opened under a track after days of heavy rains resulting in a hole 7 meters long by 4 wide and 1.5m high) at 294km/h (185mph). 4 cars and the rear power unit derailed (a TGV trainset is 2 power units and 8 to 10 cars, this was a "TGV Réseau" trainset so 2/8, meaning half the train was off the rails), the train remained upright and managed to stop (over 2.3km). One passenger injury and one passenger was treated for shock.

mtts 15y ago
Yeah, I meant accidents involving derailment. Sorry if I was unclear. These happen quite frequently with ICE trains.

brazzy 15y ago

Actually, there has been exactly one fatal ICE accident. Unfortunately, that was also the worst high speed rail accident worldwide so far: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschede_train_disaster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschede_train_disaster A design error led to a mechanical failure, which caused a derailment at the worst possible location...

Anechoic 15y ago
The interesting thing about that disaster is that rail safety folks from both the US and Europe I've spoken to have all said that if it had been the Acela in that accident there would have been far fewer fatalities due to FRA crashworithness requirements.