Railway accidents have been in the headlines this year. In yet another signal failure accident, the Mysuru-Darbhanga Express rammed a stationary goods train at Kavarapettai in the Chennai Division of Southern Railway on October 11 night. More than two dozen people were injured. Two goods trains derailed in September — one in Mathura, another in Jharkhand. The Howrah-Mumbai Mail derailed following a collision with a goods train in Seraikela-Kharsawan district of Jharkhand on July 30. The Kanchanjunga Express travelling from Agartala to Sealdah in Kolkata on June 17 collided with a goods train near Rangapani, close to New Jalpaiguri, resulting in 11 deaths. According to reports, in just the first seven months of the year, there were 19 train derailments, resulting in loss of lives and infrastructure.

In the last five years, 351 people have died and 970 injured in 200 consequential railway accidents, per data of Indian Railways from its 17 railway zones. Both passenger and goods trains were involved in these accidents, raising issues about the state of rail infrastructure.

The incidents obstructed the movement of other trains in the impacted sections, forcing railways to delay or divert trains.

The Chennai train accident is similar to the 2023 Balasore train crash, in which three trains were involved. The Coromandel Express had similarly entered a loop line, struck a goods train and derailed, before another train, the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast, crashed into it. With 296 people dead and many injured, it was one of the deadliest train accidents in India’s history.

Indian Railways is one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, carrying lakhs of people and tonnes of goods daily. The accidents raise a big question on the mode of transport that crores of Indians rely on.

Outdated infra

Recent train derailments have occurred due to poor track maintenance, overcrowding, operational errors, outdated signalling systems, weather etc. Human errors like driver’s exhaustion and carelessness, communication faults, and insufficient training have also emerged as key reasons for train accidents. Heavy rainfall, landslides, and floods also pose a threat to train safety.

The overcrowding and overloading of trains have exacerbated an already critical situation. Overcrowded trains place extra pressure on the tracks and rolling stock, making them more prone to accidents. Likewise, the overloading of goods trains beyond their capacity can lead to derailments due to the disproportionate weight and tension on the tracks.

“It is a total failure and non-adherence to strict standards of maintenance of rolling stocks, wagons and coaches by the railways,” says a railway safety expert on condition of anonymity.

Setting priorities

To reduce accidents, Indian Railways has been developing and upgrading technology in signalling and telecommunication, with automatic signalling on 15,000 km of rail network and plans for the KAVACH – the domestically developed Train Collision Avoidance System – to cover 37,000 km of tracks. However, these are still work in progress. Both the Chennai train accident and the Kanchanjunga Express crash could have been averted by installing Kavach, which is supposed to achieve zero accidents by preventing speeding or signal failure.

According to experts, deploying Kavach in the existing railway networks without disrupting train movement makes the task particularly challenging. “Kavach can’t save all collisions. Side track collisions can’t be prevented by Kavach,” a retired railways official says.

It is a matter of concern that despite the increase in railways revenue in the Budget, the rail bureaucracy hasn’t been able to utilise funds aiming for zero accidents.

The railways revenue in 2022-23 was Rs 1.2 lakh crore, and the track renewal spending in that year was 13.5% of the revenue. In FY24 (Revised Estimates), the total railway revenue rose to Rs 1.5 lakh crore, but spending on track renewal dropped to 11% of the revenue. In the July budget, the railways revenue was planned at Rs 1.8 lakh crore in FY25 (Budget Estimates), and the track renewal spending was at 9.7% of this revenue.

“Capacity augmentation hasn’t helped. It has saturated the existing network to breaking point. The maintenance window is even less, with Vande Bharat trains too running on the same track,” said the former bureaucrat.

The Railways Board, which oversees rail services in India, runs the whole infrastructure. India’s railway network is recognised as one of the largest in the world under a single management. 

“Accountability needs to be fixed at the highest level of railway bureaucracy. There is no railway safety regulator for day-to-day maintenance except the Commission of Railway Safety, whose role is limited to holding accident inquiries,” says a rail safety expert.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s constant refrain that the figure of 171 accidents per year has come down to 40 accidents in 10 years is hardly reassuring to passengers worried about their safety.

Crores is being spent in replacing or repairing outdated railroads, getting new trains, and tackling thousands of unattended railroad crossings. However, there is much more work to be done. 

At least eight people died in a two-train collision near West Bengal’s iconic hill station of Darjeeling, reflecting the need for upgraded safety systems. Kanchanjunga Express, which was on its way from Assam to Kolkata, was rammed from behind by a goods train around 9 am. Three railway staff, including the goods train loco pilot, were among the victims.

Here’s the past five deadliest 5 train accidents in India:

• 2023: Nearly 300 people were killed and over 1,000 injured in the triple-train crash in Balasore, Odisha.
• 2016: The Indore-Patna Express train derailed near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, killing at least 150 passengers.
• 2010: Jnaneswari Express crashed into a goods train in West Bengal and killed 146 people.
• 2002: Kolkata-New Delhi Rajdhani plunged into the swollen Dhabi River, killing at least 120 people.
• 1999: At least 285 people died in a collision between two trains in West Bengal.
• 1998: At least 210 people died after Sealdah Express collided with a derailed train in Punjab.
• 1995: Over 300 died after the Kalindi Express collided with the Purushottam Express in Ferozabad near Agra.

The death count in the latest train accident will be revised once confirmed.

New Delhi:

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) is developing an artificial intelligence-based device that would be able to read the blinking eyes of drivers and alert them or stop the train in case they are feeling sleepy, according to sources.

In June, the Railway Board had asked the NFR to develop a device that could detect the alertness of train drivers on the basis of blinking of eyes.

The device — Railway Driver Assistance System (RDAS) — will not only sound an alert but also apply emergency brakes in case a driver loses alertness for a certain period of time. RDAS will be interfaced with a vigilance control device to apply emergency brakes, the sources said.

“The device is still in the development stage and trials are on to ensure its proper functioning. The technical team of the NFR is working on it. We hope that it will be ready in another few weeks,” a railway source told PTI.

On August 2, the Railway Board wrote to the NFR and asked it to expedite the in-house development of RDAS. It also said that once the device is ready, it will be fitted in 20 goods train engines (WAG9) and passenger train engines (WAP7) as a pilot project.

All the zones have also been asked to provide their feedback on the working of the system after using it so that further improvements can be made to it if needed.

The Indian Railway Loco Runningmen Organisation (IRLRO), however, dubbed the device a “futile exercise”, saying that all fast-moving trains already have mechanisms to keep drivers alert.

“Every high-speed train engine comes with a foot-operated lever (pedal) which a driver needs to hit once every 60 seconds. In case, the driver fails to do so, emergency brakes are applied automatically and the train comes to a halt. The present system is good enough to ensure that the driver is alert,” said IRLRO working president Sanjay Pandhi.

“I believe RDAS is a futile exercise. If the railways is really serious about the safety of train operations, it should, among other things, conduct studies on aspects such as fatigue, running hours, facilities and rest hours of train drivers.

“In many cases, drivers, including women, do not get any breaks for having food or answering nature’s calls during their over 11-hour duty. If these things are well taken care of, there is no need to have any RADS in engines,” Pandhi said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)