 Maglev. The supposed transport of the future. It is an impressive concept. High speeds along frictionless track, the only concern is wind resistance. I'll be honest, I love the concept, but I do think of it as a bit of a gadget barn. He may be wondering why is John giving me his opinion on a semi-futuristic mode of public transport? Well, because no one else will listen to me at home. They get a bit bored when I wax lyrical about trains. Can I talk to you about Well, it leads me neatly onto today's subject, which shows that future trains are just as susceptible to bulls-ups as their more traditional counterparts. The usual suspects will come out to play. Regulations, ignorance and complacency. Today, we're looking at the Transrapid Lartin Train Collision. Maglev. Oh, Maglev. So I'm not going to go too deep of a dive into the world of magnetic levitation. I always read this as magical levitation and I know my brain is broken. Maglevs have been the brain residue of many an engineer and inventor, dating back to the early years of the last century, with this first patent filed in 1902. Maglevs have a lot of the usual madcap train replacement tropes. Expensive, complex, tracks usually raised in the air and completely incompatible with conventional trains, just like my personal favourite crazy train invention, the Benny Railplane. Many nations dip their toes into the world of Maglev, some better than others. But for today's video, let's look at just one country that worked with Maglevs, Germany. So, Maglevs run along a guideway rather than physically rolling on a track, like trains and monorails do. But unlike other guideway type transport systems, like a guided bus, no part of the train actually makes contact with the guideway. Now, now, now, before you shout at the screen, I know some systems do have little support wheels that pop out of the train when travelling at low speed, but you know, let's just ignore that for today. Anyway, so how does the train not make contact with the guideway? Well, by floating through the power of magnets. You see, how two magnets of the same pole push each other away? Well, this can be harnessed to create frictionless travel. This is where electromagnetic suspension comes into the whole equation. It creates magnetic levitation by the power of electromagnets and by constantly altering the strength of the magnetic field produced by using a feedback loop. Okay, I know I've butchered that explanation, but John's TLDR is magnets make future floaty train go brrr. So, with no friction between train and guideway, how does it drag itself along? Well, that comes in with linear induction motors. Basically, imagine an electric motor with a rotor and a stator but rolled out, flat. Instead of creating torque, it produces a linear force. This reduces moving parts to practically zero. As such, increases efficiency and reliability. As well as speed. Which is Maglev's biggest benefit? They really can go. So, that was my brief summary of Maglev. Let's focus in on Germany in particular, and our disaster area. M's Land Test Facility. So, as I mentioned earlier, one of the countries that went in on Maglev was Germany, roughly around the same sort of time as the Intercity Express project. The main player in the German Maglev scene was Transrapid. They began with an inside mock-up model in 1969 called Transrapid Number One. So, over the following decade, the concept was developed into a fully working passenger carrying prototype, by the end of the 1970s. In 1979, Transrapid Five ran during the Munich Transport Exhibition. It carried, over its few weeks, roughly 50,000 people. This generated enough interest to warrant a full-blown test track. The site was selected in Latem, M's Land, and the construction was began in 1980. The track was completed by 1984, and it was a pretty impressive project. In total, the track length was 31.5km, or 19 miles, and featured two turning curves and a straight bit of line, roughly 12km or 7.5 miles long, for achieving high-speed operation. There was a depot which had a switch to allow trains in, and another two switches at each curve and just one station. The system looked remarkably like a monorail with its concrete beam, and was elevated along the land below to be used for farming. Over the years since opening, operational speeds gradually increased as the system was refined from Transrapid Number Six all the way to Number Eight, which was built in 1999 and boasted speeds up to 420km an hour, or 260 miles an hour. Although the track and trains were solely used for testing, members of the public are allowed to ride the trains for a small fee. Transrapid Eight was a free car unit, the rear of which was always kitted out with monitoring equipment, putting passengers in the front two cars. It proved vital for building data about operating a Maglev train. The system didn't really receive a widespread rollout apart from the Shanghai Maglev, which is kind of cool. The line at the test track was a single vehicle-only operation, which meant signalling wasn't too much of a big deal, instead relying on radio communications for train movement authorities. But the Maglevs weren't the only vehicles permitted on the line. There was also a non-levitating vehicle used for track clearance and maintenance. This ran on tyres and was powered by a diesel engine. Every day an engineering vehicle drives the test track to clear it of debris, and on the 22nd of September 2006 this was no different. The Collision It is the early morning of the 22nd of September 2006, and the 60 metric tonne, 10-metre or 33 feet long maintenance vehicle makes its way out to the depot building onto the test track. Two workers are aboard and they go about their usual business checking the track for the morning's test runs. The vehicle has one driver's cab at one end, with his engine at the other. Meanwhile, the 31 passengers for the first test train of the day are congregating in the visitor centre. They're mostly employees of suppliers of the test site. Some seven test site employees, nine employees of a local elderly care centre, and a couple invited as guests of an employee. At 9am the train is ready for boarding. Two staff are in the rear of the train manning the monitoring equipment, and one makes their way to the front. He will be the morning's driver. At roughly 9.30 the maintenance train pulls up to the column before the switch to allow it back into the depot. The driver's cab is at the north end, and both workers sit inside awaiting radio clearance that the route is set for the depot building. But nothing can be heard. The line dispatcher doesn't reply to the maintenance vehicle's requests. The maglev train is scheduled to leave the small station at 9.40am. At 9.43 the train slowly rolls forward but then abruptly stops. This momentary build of excitement is just for a break test. The driver radio's line dispatch for permission to begin the test run. Nine minutes later power is fed to the track and clearance is given. The time is 9.52am. In the passenger cabin there is a screen that displays the train's current speed. It sharply increases then speeds up to 140, 150, then 160 kilometres an hour. The train in just a few seconds is close to the speed limit of the day's first run. Meanwhile the maintenance vehicle is still on the line. Just 57 seconds after departing the train's emergency brakes come on, but the impact is unavoidable. Transrapid 8 slams into the engineering vehicle. Due to the system's design the train hugs the track and its wedge shape front pushes the tired vehicle up, essentially ripping it some 60 tonnes into the top part of the maglev's passenger compartment. The front of the train is completely ripped apart, leaving just the bogies and upper frame in place. The maintenance vehicle is pushed back 300 metres or 985 feet. The sound of the collision can be heard from the control room and by now dispatchers knew their mistake. After checking each other for any injuries the crew aboard the rear carriage and the maglev called in the collision to the control room. Emergency workers are sent to the crash site, including the in-house fire department. The wreckage was bad and as rescue workers began to attend the scene they probably didn't realise that this would be the first fatal accident involving a maglev train. The two aboard the engineering train are shaken but relatively unharmed. They hear banging from below them. The floor is removed of their driver cab and three survivors miraculously still alive are within the wreckage. They're helped to safety. Escape shoots are deployed at the rear of the maglev and some survivors manage to escape. Over 200 emergency workers would attend the scene, cutting up parts of the maglev trying to recover survivors and bodies. A crane is used to remove the engineering vehicle and large pieces of debris. When a body is found it is laid out on the trackway, photographed for identification and then taken away. In total 23 would be dead. Eight would survive the crash. By the afternoon all dead and alive were recovered. The wreck train would remain on the track until November. Aftermath. So how did such an easily avoidable disaster unfold? Well it would soon become apparent that human error was the cause. A day after the disaster the two dispatchers on duty that morning were placed under arrest and held in protective custody. They are interviewed and it became clear that they had forgotten about the maintenance vehicle. They would be charged but their trials postponed due to deterioration of mental health. The guilt must have weighed pretty heavy on them. Two supervisors were also charged and fined in 2008. This was because there was a safety system in place to prevent a collision but they discouraged dispatchers from using it potentially just to save some time. You see they could set up an electronic block which would stop a maglev train from entering an occupied section. What's bizarre is that the authority of the dispatcher was taken as all that was needed to depart. Even though the engineering vehicle probably could have been seen by the maglev before the journey began. Investigators found that the engineering vehicle and the maglev were on two completely different radio systems meaning they couldn't communicate with one another or hear the communications of each other and the dispatcher. The dispatchers were eventually tried and sentenced to 12 and 18 months suspended sentences respectively. The disaster would become the end of the test site's license to carry the public and TransRapid 9 was showcased in 2008 but not to a paying public. The project would limp along until 2011 when it was shut down with all working on site losing their jobs. The only TransRapid system in commercial use would be the Shang High Line but it has been slated as an overpriced vanity gadget barn and this too has had its issues. It's a shame as the concept is cool but the future of transport sadly won't look like this. So I'm going to rate this disaster as a bad day at the office and a five on my legacy scale. This is a plain difficult production. All videos on the channel are created with Commons Attribution Share Light licensed. Plain difficult videos are produced by me John in the currently surprisingly sunny corner of southern London UK. 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