Railroads and IoT – Part 5

The Beat Goes On……

There have been three major railroad accidents in 2023:

Palestine, Ohio railway accident with poisonous, flammable chemicals
Yellowstone River derailment that dumped liquid asphalt and molten sulfur (historically known as ‘brimstone’) into the pristine Yellowstone River.
The longest tunnel in the world: the 57-kilometer Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland.

The first four parts of this series advocate for InternetOfThings (IoT) sensors to be installed on railcars with central monitoring by a new US government agency as well as smart grade crossings. We won’t rehash those arguments since the first four parts are already available.

With the explosion of InternetOfThings (IoT) sensors, inexpensive video, and the Internet availability along every railway roadbed, the cost has never been lower.

Parts 1, 2, and 3 recommend railcar monitoring using advanced IoT sensors to track and identify issues and hazards all along the length of a train. Part 4 recommends that IoT and other advanced technology be applied to systems between trains and roadway grade crossings.

The Extraordinary Gotthard Economic Return on Investment

The Gotthard Tunnel has been a huge economic engine for Switzerland, Italy, and Europe. According to Wikipedia, “The adjacent ramps include several turn tunnels. While a triumph of its era and an example of pioneering engineering, the Gotthard Tunnel was considered to be relatively slow to traverse by twentieth century standards, leading to talk of building a superior successor tunnel as early as the 1940s. During 1980, the neighboring Gotthard Road Tunnel was opened; by 2016, it was reportedly being used to convey around one million freight lorries each year. A second railway tunnel, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, was opened on 1 June 2016 after 17 years of construction; in comparison, it is considerably longer (57.1 km; namely the world’s longest railway tunnel) and at an about 500 m lower elevation than the first Gotthard Tunnel, enabling trains to traverse the Central Alps on a flat and straight route and therefore more efficiently, at higher speeds, with much less energy consumption, and longer freight trains.”

What Happened to Cause the Gotthard Accident?

Swiss authorities reported that on August 10, 2023, “Sixteen freight wagons of a train made up of thirty wagons travelling northbound in the base tunnel of the [Gotthard Base Tunnel] derailed near the multifunctional station of Faido.” The STSB cited “major damage” to several freight cars and track infrastructure. It also noted “destruction of the transported goods”, as clearly seen in some of the pictures shared by SBB.

The accident could have been much worse. The boxcars were mostly carrying spaghetti, tomato sauce, soft drinks, and wine, cargoes that, while messy, were not flammable, hazardous, heavy, or poisonous.

According to the train operator, 22 of the 30 railcars were taken from the tunnel, with several sustaining such severe damage that they had to be deconstructed in the tunnel before they could be hauled away.

The official update further stated that a temporary track was created to recover the derailed carriages via the south portal, which is located 15km from the disaster point.

Switzerland’s national railway Swiss Federal Railways (SSB) has provided an update on the substantial clearing and rescue operation at the accident site in the western tube following a freight derailment, stating that the damage will take several months to rectify. The removal procedure is in succession and, according to SSB, is “extensive”, with individuals working in two shifts seven days a week, with work to last until the end of September.

SSB has reported that freight travel has continued through the tunnel but with restrictions: “Currently, around 90 of a maximum possible 100 freight trains run through the Gotthard Base Tunnel per day. An additional 15 to 20 freight trains per day travel along the Gotthard panoramic route. SBB, together with its partners, is doing everything it can to further improve the situation for freight transport.”

August 25 Update

The Swiss Gotthard Base Tunnel was partially reopened to rail traffic at midnight on 22 August 2023. The tunnel was closed following the derailment of 16 freight carriages on 10 August 2023 which caused extensive damage to the infrastructure. Rail traffic has since been diverted in both directions via the Gotthard panoramic line wherever possible, resulting in delays in passenger traffic, and 30 per cent fewer available seats as passenger trains could not take the route.

With a route length of over 57 kilometers, it is the longest railway and deepest traffic tunnel in the world, as well as the first flat, low-level route through the Alps. In addition to damaging 8 kilometers of tracks, the derailment severely damaged 20,000 concrete sleepers and a lane change gate in the tunnel. The body of the track is badly damaged in the area of the Faido diagonal. The gate is essential to separating the two tunnel tubes, thus preventing the use of the second tunnel for trains. Initially, SBB anticipated a 6-day closure but later announced a months-long inaccessibility for passenger trains.

Over the last few days, test runs have been successfully carried out in the east tube. A mobile door installed to replace the badly damaged diagonal door will enable work to be carried out safely at the site of the accident in the west tube. However, the time-consuming work of clearing the accident site is still underway, and most of the 16 wagons that derailed are still in the tunnel. Indeed, several wagons are so badly damaged that they still have to be dismantled in the tunnel before being evacuated. At the same time as clearing the debris, SBB plans to repair the damaged railway installations, which will take most likely until the end of the year.

It could have been terrible

Preliminary estimates warned that it could have taken two years to return the Gotthard Tunnel to service. While the train was smaller, the cargo less dangerous, and the derailment limited to 16-22 boxcars, the SBB was fortunate to have the damage and hazard limited.

At the same time, the cost of business interruption and lost investment could have been much greater. After spending 17 years constructing the tunnel, two years of downtime and potential loss of life inside the long tunnel could have resulted in a much greater tragedy.

Parts 1-3 of this series argue for using modern Internet Of Things (IoT) sensors and video to monitor the most vulnerable components of rail cars: early warning of hazardous conditions in the rail car and track.

Part 4 extends this IoT analysis to grade crossings, a source of accidents between road vehicles and trains.

US Government Pledges $1.4 billion to re-configure rail, not railcars

In September 2023, the US Government announced $1.4 billion in infrastructure, passenger rail, and targeted programs in 35 states. While this provides budget to rebuild infrastructure that has been deteriorating for decades, rebuilding bridges and roadbeds address 20^th century problems when 21^st century solutions are available.

Back-of-the-envelope estimates to add IoT monitoring to a subset of railcars described in Part 3 start at about $1 billion, or about 10 F-35 fighter jets. While bridges and fighter jets are important, the increasing risk of component failure that results in business, environmental, and perhaps human loss is illustrated by the three major accidents in 2023 described above.

Confirming our recommendations

One important point from the SBB report: “The train was operated by the SBB and was transporting merchandise owned by ‘various Swiss and foreign wagon owners’.” This points up an important railcar vulnerability: Only a subset of railcars are owned by the railroad itself. Regulations will have to mandate how and when railcars of particular age, type, and cargo must be modified to travel over at-risk routes such as the Gotthard Tunnel, Yellowstone River, or problem sections of track.

Railroads have been operating at higher speeds with longer trains, higher-value cargoes, and fewer operators. IoT can mitigate some of the increased systematic risks posed by these new challenges. Rather than trade jet fighters for instrumentation, recognize that a single chemical incident’s cleanup could pay for the entire program.