Red flags that Railways ignores: Staff crunch, long hours, safety gaps

On April 19, two goods trains collided with each other near the Singhpur railway station in Madhya Pradesh, killing a loco driver and injuring his two associates.

On June 2, threetrains crashed into each other at Odisha’s Balasore, killing over 290 people.

On June 26, a goods train rammed an empty freight train parked at Ondagram station in West Bengal's Bankura district.

On October 29, two passenger trains collided in Andhra Pradesh, killing at least 13 people.

Railway investigations into these four accidents revealed that all, barring the Odisha tragedy, were caused due to signal passing at danger (SPAD).

Following the latest crash, the railway authorities directed all the zonal headquarters to conduct a two-week safety drive from October 31, emphasising on adherence to safety norms by loco pilots and assistant loco pilots.

Checking ABS a must

Loco inspectors are asked to conduct random inspection during the course of the drive to see how the crew regulate the train in an automatic block signalling (ABS) system, which consists of a series of signals that divide a railway line into a series of sections, called blocks. The system controls the movement of trains between the blocks, sending automatic signals to pilots.

This system does not go on ‘off’ mode unless the line is clear not only up to the next stop signal but also for an adequate distance beyond it. Unless directed otherwise by special instructions, this distance shall not be less than 120 meters, if the next stop signal in advance is an automatic signal, or 180 meters, if the next stop signal in advance is a manual stop signal or semi-automatic signal.

If the signal system is in “on” mode, the driver should bring the train to a halt and wait there for one minute if it is daytime or two minutes at night. He then can proceed with great caution at a speed not exceeding 15 km per hour even if the visibility is good.

The findings of preliminary investigation into Sunday's accident concluded that the Rayagada passenger train (08504) hit the Visakhapatnam Palasa passenger train (08532) from the rear as the crew of the former ignored the signal alert. The train was running at a speed of over 40 kmph though the ABS system was in “on” mode, railway sources privy to the investigation told The Federal.

The error on the part of loco crew of the Rayagada Passenger – both of them were killed in the collision – ostensibly prompted the Railway Board to order a drive to inspect how loco crews obey safety protocols. These include calling out “all signals loudly and clearly” to each other (among loco pilot and assistant loco pilot) and keeping mobile phones at bay while driving the train.

The deeper issues

These post-accident safety drives are largely seen as knee-jerk reactions as the Railway Board continues to ignore safety issues arising out of manpower shortage flagged by various railway unions, case studies, reports of commissioner of railway safety and inter-departmental inquiry reports.

“There are around 30,000 vacancies of loco pilots (LP) and assistant loco pilots (ALP) in all zones of railways. Because of the manpower shortage, the loco crews are forced to undergo long duty hours without proper rest, making them fatigued and vulnerable to errors,” the working president of the All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA), NB Dutta, told The Federal.

The fatigue-induced “micro sleep” often leads to SPAD, identified as one of the prime causes of accidents on Indian rail tracks.

Inquiries into the April 19 and June 26 accidents hinted that “microsleep” of loco crew caused the collisions. It was later found that in case of the Singpur accident, both the LP and ALP had crossed 14/15 hours of duty at a stretch when the accident occurred in the morning.

Long duty hours

An analysis of duty hours of the LP of the goods train involved in the June 26 accident at Ondagram station revealed that out of 18 trips conducted within a span of 30 days, 14 trips were at night, 10 trips exceeded 10 hours and eight trips exceeded 12 hours.

In the case of the ALP of the goods train, 22 trips were made within 30 days. Of these, 17 were at night, 13 trips were more than 10 hours and eight trips were more than 12 hours. In addition, he was forced to work continuously for more than 19 hours on June 6 and more than 16 hours on June 23.

An agreement signed between the Railway Board and the pilots’ union AILRSA in 1973 had stated that running staff will not be required to work longer than 10 hours at a stretch, and that this number would be reduced by half an hour every year until the running time reached a maximum of eight hours.

This was never followed. The Railway Board further twisted the norm, notifying last month that train drivers' maximum working hours should not exceed 12 hours, except in case of operational exigencies.

More than 15 per cent of the loco pilots are forced to overshoot their duty hours in all the railway divisions because all these divisions on an average have vacancies of similar percentage, if not more, of train drivers, said railway sources.

Mass vacancies

The Commissioner of Railway Safety’s (CRS) inquiry report into the Singhpur incident revealed that out of the sanctioned posts of 10,143 crew in the South East Central Railway (SECR) zone in April, only 8,417 were on roll. “This 17 per cent vacancy is indicative of the all India position,” Dutta said.

When a Parliamentary Standing Committee on railway questioned the Railway Board chairman as to how it manages rail operation with that many vacancies in important safety category for long time, he replied that it was managed with leave reserve, implying that loco crews are not given sufficient leave in addition to denial of sufficient rest between two duty slots.

“There is no creation of new posts of loco pilots commensurate with the number of locomotives and increased train services,” he added.

The manpower shortage in the railways is not limited to loco pilots. As per the Railway Ministry’s own statistics, compiled till August 4, there are vacancies of 2,50,965 posts across all groups of posts. This huge number of vacancies are left even after a total of 1,28,349 candidates have been empanelled to Group 'C' posts (excluding Level-1) and a total of 1,47,280 candidates have been empanelled to Level-1 posts as on June 30.

This shortfall hampers proper maintenance and operation of safety equipment and tracks.

Safety 'compromised' in fund allocation

The railways are further compromising the safety aspects even in allocation of funds, The Federal has learnt.

A national rail safety fund or Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh was created with a corpus of ₹1 lakh-crore to be allotted in five years. The railways were to invest ₹5,000 crore from its own source and another ₹15 crore was to be provided from the government’s general budgetary support every year for five years.

This ₹20,000-crore target has not been met in any year since the inception of the fund in 2017, affecting safety works.

Citing a CAG report, the Congress had alleged earlier this year that the safety fund was misused to buy foot massagers, crockery, electrical appliances, furniture, winter jackets, computers and escalators, and to develop gardens, build toilets, pay salaries and bonuses and erect a flag.