Keeping trains apart is crucial to safety
A new way of doing so uses magnetic signals in the tracks themselves
Stopping railway trains colliding requires knowing where they are. In olden days this was done by the handing over between driver and signalman of a token showing that a block of track was occupied. Now, automatic devices detect and report a train’s passage. But the principle is the same. Lines in a railway network are divided into blocks, and only one train at a time is allowed in a block.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Keeping track of the tracks”
From the October 1st 2022 edition
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