# Technology for Train Safety

By [Continuations](https://continuations.com) · 2013-12-05

trains, safety, commodity hardware

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There have been a spate of deadly train derailments including two in the summer (one in [Spain](http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/07/train_crash_in_spain.html) and one in [Canada](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/quebec-train-crash-brakes_n_3574564.html)) most recently the [Metro North one](http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-bound-metro-north-passenger-train-derails-bronx-article-1.1533963). Human error played a significant role in all of these. For instance, in the New York crash it appears that the [driver alert mechanism was not installed](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/04/derailed-new-york-train-had-alert-_n_4387345.html) in the front car. In Spain, the train driver was texting on his phone. In Canada the brakes had not been properly applied.

This is particularly unfortunate at a time when the technology for reducing the likelihood of such accidents has come down dramatically. A combination of commodity hardware and relatively simple software could have made a meaningful difference in each case. Instead though the focus is on proprietary and very expensive systems for what is called “[Positive Train Control](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_train_control).”

The BOM for an Android phone with GPS is a few hundred dollars at best. There are [lots of wireless motes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wireless_sensor_nodes) to pick from and their pricing has come way down. Trains already have emergency breaking systems and connecting to them can’t be all that hard. I would happily contribute to a prize for creating an open source system based on available components that could rapidly be deployed in train systems across the world.

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*Originally published on [Continuations](https://continuations.com/technology-for-train-safety)*