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Deutsche Bahn Train Hits 405 km/h Without Falling to Bits

posted by hubie on Thursday July 03, @12:11PM   Printer-friendly

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Siemens Mobility have managed to get an ICE test train to 405 km/h (251 mph) on the Erfurt-Leipzig/Halle high-speed line.

While China, with a maglev train hitting 650 km/h (404 mph) in just seven seconds, might regard the achievement as cute, it is a milestone for Germany, where exceeding 300 km/h (186 mph) on the rail network is rare.

The UK had its own attempt at going beyond traditional rail in the 1960s and the early 1970s with the Hovertrain, but the project was cancelled in 1973.

France pushed a steel-wheeled TGV to a record 574.8 km/h (357 mph) in 2007, yet the German achievement will inject a dose of pride into the country's beleaguered network, once an icon of efficiency.

According to a report in the UK's Financial Times, Deutsche Bahn delivers "one of the least reliable services in central Europe," even when compared to the UK's rail system, which is hardly a performance benchmark.

The test ran on a high-speed line that had been in continuous operation for ten years. According to Dr Philipp Nagl, CEO of DB InfraGO AG, no adjustments were needed.

"It is confirmation that infrastructure investments are the foundation for reliable, sustainable, and efficient mobility and logistics over generations," he said.

[...] Thomas Graetz, Vice President High Speed and Intercity Trains, Siemens Mobility, said: "Our goal was to gain in-depth insights into acoustics, aerodynamics, and driving behavior at extreme speeds." Mission accomplished – though what counts as "extreme speeds" seems to vary by country.

Trains on the UK's HS2 railway (whenever it finally opens) are expected to reach speeds of 360 km/h.

An insight into the technology behind Germany's rail network came last year, with an advertisement for an IT professional willing to endure Windows 3.11.

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Thursday July 03, @12:50PM (1 child)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 03, @12:50PM (#1409221) Journal

    Are the Chinese commuter train passengers also being astronaut trained?

    An interesting question, which led me to some interesting answers [wikipedia.org]

    Horizontal

    The human body is better at surviving g-forces that are perpendicular to the spine. In general when the acceleration is forwards (subject essentially lying on their back, colloquially known as "eyeballs in"), a much higher tolerance is shown than when the acceleration is backwards (lying on their front, "eyeballs out") since blood vessels in the retina appear more sensitive in the latter direction.[citation needed]

    Early experiments showed that untrained humans were able to tolerate a range of accelerations depending on the time of exposure. This ranged from as much as 20 g0 for less than 10 seconds, to 10 g0 for 1 minute, and 6 g0 for 10 minutes for both eyeballs in and out. These forces were endured with cognitive facilities intact, as subjects were able to perform simple physical and communication tasks...
    ...
    The highest recorded g-force experienced by a human who survived was during the 2003 IndyCar Series finale at Texas Motor Speedway on 12 October 2003, in the 2003 Chevy 500 when the car driven by Kenny Bräck made wheel-to-wheel contact with Tomas Scheckter's car. This immediately resulted in Bräck's car impacting the catch fence that would record a peak of 214 g0

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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 03, @02:27PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday July 03, @02:27PM (#1409227)

    Yeah, it's totally survivable, and as the Spectre agent told James Bond before spinning him up: "Even my Granny can take 3gs" - or something to that effect.

    Nonetheless, most vehicle passengers experience significant discomfort when cornering forces exceed 0.4g, and I would imaging a sustained 7 second 2.6g acceleration would take a bit of getting used to, even if you are "eyeballs in" on a nice seat.

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