> Unless there is evidence that the accident was caused by the Iryo train

I'd say the same about the railway network. We don't know what happened yet.

France, for example, has been trying to delay allowing Renfe (Spanish operator) to operate through the country as much as possible, while their public operator SNCF (branded as Ouigo) has been able to operate here since 2021.

"Semaphore" is (old) Greek and means "sign (sema) bearer (phore)", and actually the meaning in railways and computing is more or less the same: in computing, a semaphore signals if a resource is in use; in railways, the resource is a segment of a railway line, and the user is a train.

A lot of computer terms come from trains, I’m going to cheat and use AI:

Many modern computer terms have their roots in 19th-century railway operations, largely because early data processing and networking systems evolved alongside or out of the infrastructure created for railroads.

Terminal: Originally defined as the end point of a railway line (circa 1888), this term was adopted in 1954 to describe a device used for communicating with a computer or the point where a conductor ends in an electrical circuit.

Network: This term was first used in 1839 to describe complex, interlocking transportation systems like rivers, canals, and railways. It was later adapted for broadcasting in 1914 and for interconnected computer systems in the mid-20th century.

Punched Cards: Herman Hollerith, who developed the tabulating machine (a precursor to modern computers), was inspired by railroad tickets. Conductors used "punch photographs" to mark a passenger's physical description (hair color, nose size) on their ticket to prevent fraud. Hollerith adapted this physical encoding method for data entry.

Interlocking: In railroading, an interlocking is an arrangement of signals and appliances that prevents conflicting train movements (e.g., preventing two trains from entering the same track). This concept of hardware or software logic preventing "unsafe" states is fundamental to modern computing and circuit design.

Bus: While often associated with vehicles, the computer "bus" (a communication system that transfers data between components) shares its etymology with the "omnibus" and the conceptual "bus" lines used in telegraphy and power distribution, which were often built alongside railway right-of-ways.

Buffer: Originally a mechanical device on a railcar designed to absorb the shock of a collision, the term was adopted in computing to describe a region of memory that temporarily stores data while it is being moved from one place to another to account for differences in speed.

Semaphore: Long before they were a programming construct used to control access to shared resources, semaphores were physical mechanical signals used by railways to communicate track status to locomotive engineers. Track & Sector: On a hard drive, "tracks" and "sectors" mirror the way physical rail tracks are laid out and divided into "blocks" or segments for traffic control.

Actually the defect was detected by the operators, who installed it that night. They disabled the switch, but apparently this didn't reach the day shift.

Japan's shinkansen system has never had a fatal accident, except for one incident in 1995 where someone got killed at a station because he was caught in a door as the train departed the station (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mishima_Station_incident). No one has ever died in a derailing, crash, etc.

>It's not as safe as flying

In France and Japan, HSR has had zero fatalities in the entire period of operation.

In China, HSR had AFAIR one fatal crash, with 40 fatalities. Per passenger-mile, Chinese HSR is twice as safe as US air travel.

> I don't have data

Most railway deaths in the EU are due to unauthorized people on the tracks or due to crossings. The actual number of passengers deaths has been really low in the past years.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...

> It's not as safe as flying

In the EU it's safer than flying, with 0.5 deaths per 100 billion km/ passenger vs 3 deaths per 100 billion kms/ passenger. However, since an airplane flies at, let's say, six times the average speed of a train, the actual probability of dying during a 1-hour trip is almost 40 times more on a plane than on a train.

Brain cycles aren’t a limited supply. Besides, you’ll get to feel a nice jolt of serotonin when you remember to sit backwards.

> I would imagine crashes on these high speed lines (which always seem to be run at a higher level of professionalism than the general networks) are rarest of all

If this crash is anything like the other ones, you might be surprised. Safety complacency tends to cause maintenance failures. Plus the low speed lines are less deadly since the total energy is proportional to velocity squared, and v is low.

In other words, it might be more helpful to look at it as "if they’re run at a higher level of standards, it’s because they have to be".

Statistically you’re probably right, but considering how many brain cycles we waste on non-essentials, it’s just as fun to waste them on this. That way you can start a nerdy conversation with your travel companions, and they can learn to travel without you next time.

C5 Galaxy (US military jumbo cargo plane) has a passenger compartment with rear facing seats.

At least BEA airliners used to have quite a few backward facing seats, up to half the plane.

However, there were a number of problems - people didn't like sitting in them, people didn't like hearing that their seat wasn't as safe as the others, you can't get as many rows in unless you turn them all backwards, and the structure needs to be designed differently so then you need more spares.

Not the author, but I think there was some research and it's indeed better for you if you have head support, to be facing back towards the front. If prevents a whole range of injuries, from your neck, to becoming a projectile yourself.

But it's really theoretical, and does not account for the passenger in front of you headed head-first into your throat.

PS: I laughed hard that xlbuttplug2 is answering to deadbabe. The internet lives!

Disclaimer I work for Zoox, but here is us crash testing https://youtu.be/597C9OwV0o4

It's incredibly beneficial. However many people dislike it and want to be facing the direction they are moving in, so best case is probably a train-style 4-seater. Which 2 seats facing forward and 2 backwards.

Infant car seats face backwards, they recommend backwards facing for a long as possible (until the kid is too big to fit comfortably in a backwards facing position).

It was the rear carriage which derailed