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Because we haven't had a disaster expensive or deadly enough to overcome the rail industries "ZOMG!!!!!!! That would cost zillions!" reaction yet. It doesn't help that the systems I've read about are all full auto-pilot/automatic switching systems that would need to be installed on every train, passenger and freight, and at every rail switch in order to be effective.
For preventing conductor wasn't paying attention and went too fast accidents a much simpler solution consisting of a maximum speed governor and a GPS/inertial (for routes with tunnels) tracking system would be sufficient. It would also be something that could be added to trains individually, probably only to passenger or high risk freight initially, instead of needing to be deployed everywhere all at once.
Cynically speaking this is a liability because it would mean much less money to be made by the companies pushing regulators to mandate the use of their product.
As always, perfection is the enemy of good enough. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Dan Neely wrote: a much simpler solution consisting of a maximum speed governor and a GPS/inertial (for routes with tunnels) tracking system would be sufficient.
Exactly what I was thinking. And certainly for the NYC Metro rail system, which has had 2 (or was it 3?) major accidents this year, freight isn't an issue because these trains are "light rail" and freight never runs on them. At most, they share the track with Amtrak, and again, in the Hudson / NY / Boston areas, Amtrak and freight do not share the same track.
The only thing I'd add is some sort of radar collision detection gear - that's a bit more problematic because many of these trains don't have the engine up front, so putting these devices on the cars and communicating to the engine would make things a bit more complicated.
Marc
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SoMad wrote: Santiago, Spain.
Ah yes. Thanks for the correction.
Marc
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It was in Spain, Santiago de Compostela.
There are special sensors that help, but at the end it all depends on the "pilot"...
A GPS assisted and a beacon system should be easy and not so much expensive to implement, and at least it would avoid this kind of problems.
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What I don't understand is why someone that has a job, where there are 2 things to do, use the accelerator and the brake is incapable of doing his job. The guy doesn't even need to steer it.
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It seems he may have fallen asleep on the job. He admitted to being sleepy in radio communications earlier in the trip. That leads to the question of if he did a stupid and didn't get enough sleep on his normal schedule, or was a last minute replacement and normally worked a shift where he'd've been sleeping when the accident occurred.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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I think a dead man switch wouldbe enough to counter this. Operator falls asleep -> train stops. Simple as that. Ok, probably there should be some additional system to prevent the next train from crashing into the standing one.
The good thing about pessimism is, that you are always either right or pleasently surprised.
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The less you have to do to concentrate on the task at hand, the more likely you are to drift off to another dimension.
I know that when I am stuck in a long line of traffic cruising along at some rediculously low speed I'm ready to fall alseep after 10 minutes, but if I drive (or better yet, ride the motorcycle) fast (ie over the speed limit, the more the better) my concentration level is way better because you have to react to more things in a lessor time frame.
If your neighbours don't listen to The Ramones, turn it up real loud so they can.
“We didn't have a positive song until we wrote 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue!'” ― Dee Dee Ramone
"The Democrats want my guns and the Republicans want my porno mags and I ain't giving up either" - Joey Ramone
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And the train driver sits there and comtemplates
"What I don't understand is why someone that has a job where there is one thing to do, write code, is incapable of doing their job."
Or have you never had a bug?
MVVM # - I did it My Way
___________________________________________
Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
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The job of a footballer is to kick footballs into goals. Their entire working life (at least 8 hours a day) is dedicated to learning how to do this and practice doing it.
How many miss penalties?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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There is, Singapore's MRT has no drivers on most (if not all) of their rail. Arrival times are every 1-2 minutes in peak times and the operators get fined $1m if they cause a major delay. They have an excellent ticketing system that causes minimal delays and a trip of 6 stops cost 86 CENTS in off peak and something just over a $1 in peak hour.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Because they like to go really slowly while they check tickets, then speed up.
That would be tricky to automate! I'm not kidding!
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Turns out it's on it's way. Mandated in the US by 2015 for passenger trains.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/04/railroad-crash-positive-train-control-crash-ntsb-metro-north/3869729/[^]
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Genghis Kahn, being in a good mood decides to spare one life of his 1,000 captives. He has them stand in a circle and runs a sword through every second man.
If the first man is #1 [amongst Kahn's many crimes was a love for VB], which man will be left alive?
speramus in juniperus
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Well, unless Genghis Kahn decides to stand in the circle, he should be fine.
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The last one standing.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Doesn't that discriminate against people in wheelchairs?
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote: Doesn't that discriminate against people in wheelchairs?
Not more than your average daily scrum 
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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The first man will be left standing.
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He will be first down in the fourth time around...
speramus in juniperus
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Delving a little deeper...
1,3,5,7....99
1,5,9,13......97
1,9,17,25,33,41,49,57,65,73,81,89,97
9,25,41,57,73,89
9,41,73,
9,73
73
73 survives!
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You're in the right area [not]. If it was 100, then 73 would survive but there were 1,000.
[clue]
For smaller cases:
Prisoners 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Survivor 1 1 3 1 3 5 7 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 1 3 5 7 9
There is a formula here...
[fixed]
speramus in juniperus
modified 3-Dec-13 14:23pm.
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Are you sure your clue is right? For example, with 14 prisoners, how can #15 be the survivor? 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Small mistyping, I fix...
speramus in juniperus
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