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Journalism of Courage
Tuesday’s train accident in Mukerian that killed 38 people in a head-on collision has once again raised several questions about the railway system in the country. And the Railways needs only to look at Mumbai to see how a collision-free railway system can be a possibility.
In the country’s industrial capital, the trains move so fast that there is a gap of only 3-4 minutes between the timings of trains. In spite of this, there are no incidents of collision.
The city has the automatic signalling system where all movements of trains are guided by signals. It enables the driver of a train to know the location of the previous train. If the signal is green, it means there is no train up to four signals, while a yellow signal means there is a train after one signal. Then the motorman has to reduce the speed to approximately 30 km. If he forgets to lower the speed, a hooter warns the driver.
The auxiliary warning system installed on the tracks enables the brakes to be automatically applied when the signal turns red. When the train moves, the auxiliary warning system are in touch with the train. The signals are kept at a distance of 400-600 metres on the slow track and 600 metres-700 metres on the fast track. Signal interlocking is set according to 3 minutes and 4 minutes frequency respectively on the Western and Central Railways.
Also, there is continuous track circuiting, ie, if these is any obstacle on the track or the track is broken, the signal automatically turns red. Also, there are different tracks for different directions—up trains cannot ply on down tracks and vice-a-versa. Shailendra Kumar, Chief PRO, Western Railways, said: ‘‘In all trains, motormen have cellphones. If they see something unusual, they can inform control rooms.’’
