A locally-developed temporary speed restriction (TSR) system that is intended to improve train safety was successfully tested on the tracks this week, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said Saturday.
The TSR system, developed by the National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, was put to the test for the first time July 21-22 on a 51-kilometer section of the TRA’s North-Link line that runs from Su’ao in Yilan County to Hualien County, the TRA said in a release.
The system that is designed to be installed on a railway was tested to see if it could detect unidentifiable objects on the tracks as a train traveling at different speeds approaches, the railway administration said.
According to the TRA, the TSR works in tandem with “landslide detectors” to send out early warning signals to a train equipped with the automatic train protection (ATP) system or the automatic train control (ATC) system.
In the event that there are fallen objects, the ATP or ATC will be alerted to automatically stop or slow down a train as a precautionary measure, it explained.
Also, the TRA added that the speed restriction system is expected to be installed at 15 different high-risk railway sections by the end of 2023.
In the future, the TSR system will be able to work with other types of warning detectors such as the ones for rockslides, vehicle intrusion, and level crossings, TRA Director-General Du Wei (杜微) said.
The system was developed to prevent accidents such as a deadly train crash in Hualien in 2021 from occurring again.
The train accident, which killed 49 people, was Taiwan’s deadliest in seven decades and occurred when an express train carrying 496 passengers derailed and crashed into the wall of a tunnel after hitting a contractor’s crane truck that had tumbled down an adjacent hillside onto the tracks.
The accident prompted calls for train safety in Taiwan to be improved.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel