Testing Ourselves

A Spanish train that was going too fast - nearing the end of a six-hour trip from Madrid to the town of Ferrol in northwest Spain - jumped the tracks on a "difficult curve" on the approach to the north-western city of Santiago de Com postela. Nearly 80 people were killed, 130 were injured, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. This is the worst railroad accident over the past few weeks. All of these clearly show the importance of intelligent railway signaling and interlocking systems. The best solution is clearly a fully automatic system that minimizes adverse human factors: this will be compulsory in tomorrow\´s systems. The tutorial in this issue is devoted to this problem. In one of the following issues we\´ll be discussing antenna and propagation challenges as well as some related electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problems. What kinds of communication are necessary in high-speed rail? What types of antennas are used there? In addition to conventional problems, what additional problems arise related to antennas and propagation? How awful is the signal environment in high-speed rail, etc.? I believe a tutorial touching upon these issues will be very useful to our Society. The tutorial on intelligent railway signaling and interlocking systems in this issue provides the background for the later tutorial on antennas and propagation in high-speed rail systems.