Rail Safety

MPs raise safety issues as railway officials brief Parliamentary panel

The issue of recent train accidents and overall passenger safety was raised at a parliamentary panel meeting on Wednesday, with some opposition members questioning the "delay" in rolling out 'Kavach', an automatic train protection system. Officials representing the railway ministry assured the members of the Estimates Committee, which is headed by BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal, that the government has been taking a series of steps to ensure that the vast network of Indian railways will have world-class safety measures in place by 2030, sources said. All trains will have anti-collision LHB coaches by that time, they said. Some members, the sources said, questioned the officials over recent cases of train accidents and wondered if sabotage was behind them. An opposition MP asked why the ministry does not acquire land in advance for doubling the tracks knowing well that it will be done in future as the land acquisition process later often delays projects. Officials added that the rate of ...

Rail expansion, ops safety, high-speed train on parliamentary panel agenda

The parliamentary panel on the railways has selected "ensuring safety in Indian Rail operations", expansion of its network in the North East and UTs, and high-speed train network as among the subjects the panel will take up in its tenure. The 31-member committee headed by BJP MP C M Ramesh will also examine a number of other issues, including improvement of public facilities at the railway stations, increasing freight-related earnings and the development of dedicated freight corridors, passenger reservation system and the promotion of railway-based tourism, an official bulletin said. Safety in the running of trains has always been a sensitive issue and the opposition parties have cited some recent accidents to accuse the government of compromising on this crucial aspect. However, the Railway Ministry has insisted that the overall accident rate has come down drastically during the Modi government's tenure. High-speed or bullet trains is an ambitious agenda of the government, which ha

Unified train operation safety norms to be issued in next 10 days: Vaishnaw

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said that for signal failure, a unified train operation safety norm applicable to all railway zones will be issued in the next 10 days. Talking to media persons here, Vaishnaw said the ministry initiated the process of bringing uniformity in subsidiary rules (SR) of all 17 railway zones after the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) flagged contradictions in these norms in its investigation report in the Kanchanjunga train accident that took place on June 17. A goods train had hit the stationary Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express in the rear killing 10 people including the loco pilot of the goods train in West Bengal. The CRS had said that differences in subsidiary rules of various railway zones regarding speed restriction during automatic signal failure led to confusion. "We constituted a committee after discussing the matter with the CRS and initiated the work of reviewing all the subsidiary rules of all 17 zones to bring uniformity

9,784 railway bridges sanctioned for repairs, rebuilding: Vaishnaw in LS

Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed Lok Sabha in a written reply on Wednesday that the Indian Railways sanctioned 9,784 railway bridges for repairs, strengthening, rehabilitation or rebuilding. Vaishnaw responded to questions raised by nine MPs on whether the government has identified old railway bridges in Maharashtra which are in dilapidated conditions and the details of the repair work undertaken in the last three years. These members were concerned about the status of collapse of railway bridges in the last three years and the number of persons killed and injured as a result of that. They also wanted to know the steps taken by the government to repair all the old railway bridges across the country. "There is a well established system of inspection of railway bridges on Indian Railways. All the railway bridges are inspected twice a year, one before the onset of monsoon and one detailed inspection after the monsoon," Vaishnaw said. "In addition, certain railway bridges a

Track changes: Accidents on rise as Railways grapples mounting pressure

In recent years, the railways has been able to curtail consequential accidents, defined as the ones that cause loss of life, several injuries, and loss of rail property and stoppage of rail traffic

Indian Railways to add new 'anti-injury' feature to passenger coaches

Indian Railways is looking to replace its ICF-design with German LHB that comes with a feature to prevent trains from piling up on each other in case of accidents

Railways safety initiative on the right track, but not yet full steam ahead

Rlys plans infra maintenance two months in advance

Rs 4,198 cr allocated for signalling works to enhance rail safety: Vaishnaw

Minister of Railways, Communications, and Electronic and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, presented this comprehensive information in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha

For speed and safety on the tracks, Indian Railways has problems to solve

Repairs or maintenance of a railway line is unpleasant news to break to station controllers, who along with officials in divisions, guide thousands of rakes and trains every day

TMS Ep448: Railway safety, Modi-Biden agenda, markets, railway signalling

Has India lost sight of railway safety? What's the agenda for Modi-Biden meet? Should you buy defensives in a range-bound market? What is the Railway electronic signalling system? All answers here

Railways spent over Rs 1 trn of RRSK funds on safety in 5 years: Report

The Railways has announced a high-level probe as well as an independent inquiry by the Commissioner of Rail Safety, which comes under the Ministry of Civil Aviation

Anger in Greece over poor safety grows as train crash toll rises to 57

The majority of the passenger involved in the accident were young, ERT reported citing a local hospital

Over Rs 50,000 crore spent on rail safety till August 31: Ashok Lavasa

The govt in its Budget this year announced special safety fund of Rs 1.31 lakh crore for Indian Railways