And now for the non-PC rant. Security measures suggested by politicians after train crashes are some of the stupidest, least effective things that can be done. They usually include spending billions on measures that are unlikely to save more than a few lives per year, if that - and would be much more usefully spent on road safety, or fighting certain kinds of diseases (not to mention, if the purpose is to save lives, things like fighting malaria in the third world).
Big train catastrophes, like plane accidents, are extremely rare but seem to generate passionate responses in the public (becuase we all take the train BUT we don't drive it ourselves and are thus not "in control" - extraordinary precautions must thus be taken, obviously, to protect us from all these incompetents).
The real remedies, those suggested by your diary, are never discussed in the public outcry (they may end up being done by the railway company if it has good engineers in management, but it will have little relation to the political noise made around the catastrophe). In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
On the other hand, I don't want to sound insensitive, but trainwrecks (and airplane crashes and shipwrecks) don't just have a number of killed effect, but a money effect too - and even if more lives could be saved with that money elsewhere, it is often the case that the disaster costs much more than the safety measure that fell victim to some cost-saving measure. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
the disaster costs much more than the safety measure that fell victim to some cost-saving measure
And to clarify, one of the reasons for the inner/damper/outer wheel design is to dampen vibration, not for "ride quality" but to keep vibration from causing a structural failure of the wheel. This wheel design has also grounded the Acela trains here in the US, finding the right damper material is a challenge.
It may have been for the sake of the wheel on other vehicles (tough I never heard of this - and a two-part wheel seems more prone to failure to vibration even on a tramway to me), but not the ICE.
The German Railways in fact first tried to run ICEs without any form of dampening, but the result was the infamous "Dröhnen" (carbody vibrations so strong it can be heard), and a rather unsteady run of the biggest car, the restaurant car.
I don't remember the use of such wheels in the Acela, I have to look it up. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
All of those I mentioned were necessary, and at some stage foreseen. The technical people did see their necessity in advance.
A similar issue is that of tunnels and tunnel fires. I predict right now that there will be a catastrophic tunnel fire in some European rail tunnel opened in the last 10 years, in which the investigation will find that escape shafts were placed too infrequently. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
