Superfast Maglev Trains - How do they stop deer from getting hit?

[hu4d]

Today I was rewatching this excellent Tom Scott video about a prototype train they have in Japan that goes 500km/h. Due to its speed, you can't hear the thing until it's almost right on top of you! So cool

 

Something that occurred to me was how they protect the tracks for something like that? It's not like I think I'm smarter than these engineers, surely they've come up with some sort of solution, but I couldn't find anything on it after maybe 10 minutes of searching around.

 

I don't even necessarily think that smacking into a deer at 500km/h would really even pose an issue for the train, just that it's more of a PR thing! In America we don't have too many trains, but the ones we do have are slow and very loud. The only place animals really get killed that much are on highways, and IMO it does pose a pretty significant problem! Deer related accidents are a huge problem where I am and in most suburban/rural places in the country to my knowledge.

 

We've probably all seen at this point this hysterical photo of an Adventure Time branded train covered in blood from alleged seagull impacts, which is what has been mostly in my head when searching about this.

 

Anybody know anything about this?

[PDifolco]

The issue is the same with all modern trains, they don't and can't stop for animals or a passer by

So the idea is to make the railroad not accessible easily, especially to large animals, with walls, fences, enbankments and ditches

In France our TGV lines (it goes up to 300Km/h) are mostly inaccessible to animals and humans

[hu4d]

@PDifolco Huh so the simplest answer I guess? Just a lot of fencing and bridges? You can kinda see some of it in the video but I was thinking to myself no way they just keep doing that for another 200km.

 

Thanks !

[PDifolco]

2 minutes ago, hu4d said:

@PDifolco Huh so the simplest answer I guess? Just a lot of fencing and bridges? You can kinda see some of it in the video but I was thinking to myself no way they just keep doing that for another 200km.

 

Thanks !

We did that for thousands of kilometers !

 

[hu4d]

20 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

 

Based on this (awesome) map you've provided, is it safe to assume that literally nothing goes on in the center of France lmao

[TetraSky]

I have seen what happens when a train going much slower than this hits a big animal...

The train ain't stopping. I can tell you that much. And the result ain't pretty.

[PDifolco]

13 hours ago, hu4d said:

 

Based on this (awesome) map you've provided, is it safe to assume that literally nothing goes on in the center of France lmao

Not much indeed, it's the less populated and active area, but it's the same in USA, Canada and worse in Australia  

[Jaw709]

No need, they can stop on a buck.

[Stahlmann]

Either you have a track that is a few meters above ground level, or you make the track inaccessible. I'd wager just putting up fences is much cheaper.

[Beeblebrox2112]

The problem takes care of itself.  Eventually.

[manikyath]

8 minutes ago, Beeblebrox2112 said:

The problem takes care of itself.  Eventually.

this MUST be sarcasm... even disregarding your suggestion that killing all deer is a legitimate option, these trains are very expensive, the damage is likely to be extensive, and even if the train does not fail catastrophically from the impact, it'll probably be enough for some serious injury for travelers on board.

 

--

on topic: running into things is a very big problem for rail in general. every railroad crossing in belgium has an (in my opinion far too small) sign with a number to call if there's an incident on a railroad crossing that makes it unsafe for trains to pass... but even then preventable disasters are FAR too common.

 

we dont have much high speed track here, but even our low speed stuff is very fenced off for essentially this reason. as it turns out not only deer are dum as fuk, humans are a big problem too.

 

the "advantage" maglev has compared to classic rail, is that it's infrastructure is inherently less "accessible".

[LogicalDrm]

The current high-speed rails in Japan already are build either on embankment or on bridge. 

 

And as noted, this is already a issue with current train systems, and high-speed motorway systems. How do you stop your car from hitting deer at 120km/h? Not pretty sight either, and can be deadly for you besides the deer.