AA Edit | As accidents rise, Railways have questions to answer
Probes are on to investigate why an express train entered a loop line and crashed into a stabled goods train near Chennai. The conspiracy theory of sabotage having been at work may not be a canard in this case since tell-tale signs of tampering of a switching point and signalling gear were said to have been spotted near the accident site.
It is, however, the fuller picture of frequent derailments, whether through human error in the system with someone forgetting to switch trains back to the line they should be running on or mistakes by the running crew or acts of sabotage that have been seen to be happening of late, that raise huge concerns triggering fear over rail travel in the country.
There were mitigating factors like Linke-Hofmann-Busch (LHB) coaches of German technology that do not telescope into each other in a crash, lesser speed of the train that was to negotiate a curve just after the station it was supposed to pass through and the design of the guard wagon of the goods train that absorbed much of the shock that may have proved fortunate in this derailment not leading to loss of lives while causing injuries to a few passengers.
The Mysore-Darbhanga Bagmati Express was said to have experienced a very heavy jerk while entering the station and a mysterious transfer to the loop line instead of continuing to traverse the green-lighted main line leading to the derailment of a dozen coaches and mayhem and panic in the dark for close to 1,300 people who may have been on the national long-distance train.
The question to be asked is, are the Indian Railways to be trusted to offer security to the lives of the millions of passengers who opt to travel by train because not a month passes without incidents of trains going off the rails or even running into each other as it happened in the most tragic accident in Balasore, Orissa in June 2023 when nearly 300 passengers were killed and close to a thousand injured?
While Opposition politicians spout criticism at the drop of a hat or the news of an accident and blame the Establishment, what should be taken note of from the critique is whether the railways as an establishment has gone off the rails regarding the safety factor that is most crucial to around 350 crore passengers who take Indian trains in a year, translating to nearly a crore people as passengers every single day.
There are several questions that the railways must feel responsible enough to find the answers to. Is the system under-staffed? Is safety getting inadequate funding in the Railways’ budget? What about enabling the cost-effective Kavach Shield system across the main lines and trains of the country more quickly than the four- to five-year time that is being spoken of?
The answer to whether ways can be found to make the maintenance crew more accountable in the upkeep with utmost safety in mind of the rails and running stock remains to be found as accountability is not the biggest national ideal, certainly not in the nationally owned enterprises. It is sad but true that passengers board trains with a faint sense of trepidation because an alternative is not to be universally had.