Re:Dieselgate, but for trains – some heavyweight hardware ha...
by TomaszZielinski on Friday December 08, 2023 @06:47PM
(#38576498)
Thank you for putting it so clearly! I feel this angle got somewhat lost in the whole discussion.
For instance, has anyone really analyzed, what would happened if the trains were running at 160km/h at midnight, on Nov 21? I mean, they might have, I don't know. But that would be pretty funny--having documentation for what's very likely a tort (well, it's Polish counterpart), if not an outright criminal act.
Imagine if this happened to an airliner in flight: there'd be criminal charges for sure, not to mention huge damages and lawsuits from the families of the dead if some of the control systems locked up in mid-air.
Trains are not quite as susceptible to disaster arising in the course of operations as airliners, but a Newag Impuls 45WE runs at up to 160km/h in service with up to 218 people on board. (Their speed record is considerably higher.) A sudden breakdown in service is at a minimum going to cause timetable havoc and knock-on delays for other trains and at worse could lead to a mass casualty accident.
(John Deere tractors don't usually carry 200+ passengers and Apple computers don't usually get deployed in safety critical situations. So, different!)