Railway intelligent system is not to replace manpower, but must be operated by more well-trained personnel (Source: Agenda 21st century Taiwan)

Taiwan Railways is currently working on a forward-looking plan for the intelligent upgrade of electrical service, including: updating the tram line system, installing electronic interlocking systems and high-speed image inspection vehicles for tram lines, etc. Furthermore, digital analysis and intelligent scientific management are applied to improve the stability of the overall electrical system and enhance driving efficiency and safety.

There were 46 major railway traffic accidents in Taiwan in 2018. The most serious accident is Yilan train derailment on 21 October 2018. A Puyuma express train that is service 6432 from Shulin bound for Taitung was carrying 366 passengers and 18 people were killed and 215 were injured after train derails. It is generally believed that when the force of the car accident is not too large, the vehicle will not cause major casualties. However, trains are different from other road vehicles. Kinetic energy of the train is large on different impact angles and different environments, then the same force may cause serious derailment and cause more serious injuries to passengers.

Prof. Po-Hsiang Liu, an expert of human factors engineering and transportation safety from the St. John’s University, has pointed out that after the accident of Puyuma Express, the public began to realize that the driving of a train is very different to driving a car. People believed that the safety of a train is more like that of an airplane, depending on the one or two drivers. This concept is not entirely correct, since safety is the result of team cooperation (i.e., train driver, train maintenance, railway engineer, and train staffs etc.)

However, there are technologies to increase the safety of a train, while relieving the workload of the drivers and the railway staffs. A sophisticated pilot for example, before deciding which buttons to press during his/her steering, he/she must have been well trained with the principles of physics and mechanics, and how they are applied by aviation technologies. Today, the purposes of technologies are to help operators concentrate on their work, so while incident happens, they can make the best judgement. The skills the drivers and the staff need is to operate the apparatus correctly. Railway Intelligent system is not to replace manpower, but must be operated by more well-trained personnel.

Countries in the world, especially in European, are currently devoted to the research and development of transportation safety. The integration of these safety systems is an important issue at the current stage of the Taiwan Railway.As the upgrade of the Taiwan Railway is undertaking, it is the time to introduce the globally uniformed protocols. Taiwan High-Speed Rail, Taiwan Railway, and MRT of different cities have different systems, due to Taiwan’s incapability in planning and design and had to import service and technologies from different countries. It also resulted in very inconvenient maintenance. An integrated system not only helps Taiwan to support local industries, but also makes the railway travel much more safer.