The anger on the faces of the people at the Köln-Süd platform of the regional train bound for Bonn is palpable these days. Since the beginning of March, technological upgrade projects of the control and security system of the network have been carried out again, with the result that there have been ups and downs in the itineraries in the area between Cologne, Bonn and Kobletz, and worst of all, there have been long delays. Even the routes of long distance trains change route and times, sometimes the route is even cancelled. “Death” for those who connect their professional daily life with the train. And there are too many of them. The same disturbing image in Munich. Deutsche Bahn is preparing a new state-of-the-art station hall at the Bavarian capital’s eastern train station. The goal is the greater safety of the passenger public. And to complete the project, the entire regional route schedule is upended next weekend. Those who wanted to travel around Munich will have to find another means. Safety and speed require something of our time and comfort.

“Practically impossible for a secure system to fail”

But not only. It also needs security, proper infrastructure, modern trains, well-trained people. And a state that has taken all this very seriously. And learn from his mistakes. One such “wake-up” moment for Germany was the accident in Bad Eidling, Bavaria in 2016. The head-on collision of two passenger trains on one track killed 12 people and injured 89 others. The stationmaster was playing a video game in his cell phone. His mind was elsewhere. The system warned him, but he reacted incorrectly. He couldn’t handle the pressure of the impending doom he was seeing unfolding through the system with his own eyes! “That’s why this particular accident was a turning point in Germany’s railway annals,” Emmanuel Psyridis, a qualified electrical engineer with experience as a train functional safety, signaling and safety test engineer, who lives and works in Germany, tells Deutsche Welle. the sector for the last 15 years. He has extensive experience having worked in other countries, so he insists that security technology should be so advanced that it prevents or even protects against human error. “According to the UNISIG European Signaling Mechanism a human can make one mistake per 1000 hours of operation. But a secure system has one failure per 1 billion hours of operation. Or, if we do the divisions, somewhere in 115,000 years of operation. Bottom line? Is it practical impossible for a secure system to fail”.

Key word, therefore “secure system”. How does Germany guarantee and implement this security in practice? “Germany has gone through all the ages of safety systems since World War II. First, from the so-called point safety system of the 1950s, which detects the movement of a passing train at various points along the route, not consecutively but before each traffic light, with resulting in the speeding driver being warned to slow down if the following traffic light is red, and if he doesn’t obey, the train is automatically stopped. This is something that is everywhere on the German railway network. A more sophisticated one is the linear system. Instead to have magnets before each traffic light, there is a conductor between the tracks that tracks the movement of the train along the track and gives its position, speed and direction in real time.This is a safety system circa 1980 The most modern is the well-known European Train Control System (ETCS) which is heard a lot these days in Greece. electronic automated system with sensors on the rails, placed at specific distances. Sensors act as IDs. They give in real time the speed, the direction of the train, not only to the control center, but at the same time they translate the light signals, perceived visually by man, into O’s and 1’s, so that the train’s computer can also perceive them. The train does not let the driver develop speed, it warns him. And if the driver violates the speed limit, it stops him before he passes the traffic light. In general, ETCS covers ten scenarios for every train movement, slow, fast, forward, parking, etc.

“Responsibility, education, technology”

The signal also goes to the station master. The station master knows exactly where his trains are, where they are headed and most importantly, through which exact route, which he pre-determines and creates. So two people are watching the train? “At least two, maybe more” says the Greek expert. “The train cooperates with the safety systems in the signaling infrastructure. Whatever happens in the train is immediately noticed, either by radio waves or by direct communication. That is, there is no chance of it going unnoticed by the central control department. Besides, the stationmasters and train drivers are, and must be, in constant communication”. This is not to say that security automation makes the human presence intrusive. “I believe that without the human factor involved somewhere in the system we cannot be fully automated. The technology is there to prevent human error and to stop the consequences of inevitable human error. There has to be a human in control as well once the technology. Each from his place. Station master, driver, control center, technology, all in a loving partnership. And the station master like an orchestra conductor.” The triptych of safe travel by train in Germany? “Responsibility, education, technology”. The order doesn’t matter, because it all goes together. Germany is seriously training its train workers. For the stationmasters it is three years, it is not a short time. Germany is investing in technology. For the period from 2020 to 2040, it must give 1.5 billion every year. The train is an expensive affair. But above all it takes responsibility.

Responsibility means being committed. Monitor your computer, give commands, even intervene in the security system when necessary, implement protocols and regulations. The conversations of those responsible that were made public after the tragedy of Tempe, belong to the case file. How did they come out? What purpose does their publication serve? And this aspect is within the limits of the responsible management of a railway tragedy. Which in Germany caused a huge surprise, as can be seen from the comments of the German press. But the aim of the article is not to idealize the situation in Germany. Even there there are shortcomings. There are still single tracks that serve two-way trains. The technical security system needs an upgrade. Constantly. A constant road race for the safety of passengers. Those who grumble and resent waiting on the platform of the Köln-Süd station for the delayed train to go to work. Or who are forced to cancel their excursion to Garmisch-Partenkirchen for skiing and a blonde Bavaria beer…