When LZB drops out, does the fallback to ASFA plus verbal authorization actually enforce block separation, or is it basically just driver discipline at 300 km/h?
It does, but only when trains are separated by blocks in the first place. LZB blocks are way shorter, so after LZB went down these two trains seem to have been inside the same ASFA block. The failover from LZB to ASFA must be done correctly (and always with line of sight speed limits) until all trains get into their own blocks before ASFA works as designed. This seems to be the procedure that failed.
ASFA is max 200 km/h btw but that doesn’t matter to how this went down.
When on verbal authorization, controller discipline is probably more important than driver discipline. And I really hope they don't do that at 300 km/h.
ASFA is max 200 km/h btw but that doesn’t matter to how this went down.