India’s fatal train crash renews safety concerns as government pushes for railway modernization

NEW DELHI (AP) India’s prime minister was due to inaugurate a semi-fast electric train fitted with a safety device, another step in modernizing an antiquated railway that is the lifeline of the most populous nation of the world.

Instead, on Saturday, Narendra Modi traveled to eastern Odisha state to deal with one of the country’s worst train disasters. which left more than 280 people dead and hundreds injured. Friday night’s massive derailment involving two passenger trains is a stark reminder of the safety issues that continue to challenge the vast rail system that carries nearly 22 million passengers every day.

India, a country of 1.42 billion people, has one of the largest and most complex railways in the world built during the British colonial era: over 64,000 kilometers of track, 14,000 passenger trains and 8,000 stations. Spread across the country, from the Himalayas in the north to the beaches in the south, it’s also a system weakened by decades of mismanagement and neglect. Despite efforts to improve safety, several hundred accidents happen every year.

From 2017 to 2021, there were more than 100,000 train-related deaths in India, according to a 2022 report released by the National Crime Records Bureau. This figure includes cases in which passengers fell from trains, collisions and people mowed down by high-speed trains on the tracks.

Official data also suggests that derailments are the most common form of rail accidents in India, but have declined in recent years.

According to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Indian Railways recorded 2,017 accidents from 2017 to 2021. Derailments accounted for 69% of accidents resulting in 293 fatalities.

The report revealed several factors, including track defects, maintenance issues, outdated signaling equipment and human error as the main causes of the derailments. He also said that lack of money or non-use of funds available for lane restoration was the cause of 26% of accidents.

Even though rail safety in India has improved from previous years when serious accidents and accidents near unmanned level crossings were more common, dozens of people died and hundreds were injured.

In 2016, a passenger train skidded between the cities of Indore and Patna, killing 146 people. A year later, a derailment in southern India killed at least 36 passengers.

The Modi government, in power for nine years, has invested tens of billions of dollars in the railways. The money has been spent to renovate or replace old tracks laid down by the British in the 19th century, introduce new trains and remove thousands of unmanned level crossings.

The train Modi was due to inaugurate on Saturday was India’s 19th Vande Bharat Express, linking the western city of Mumbai and the southern state of Goa.

Modern trains are designed to help reduce the risk of accidents and derailments. They will be paired with a nationwide automatic rail collision protection system, technology that will make travel safer, according to Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

But the system was not yet installed on the track where Friday’s crash occurred. It is unclear what caused the trains to derail and an investigation has been opened.

Experts suggest that the country’s rail system should prioritize safe tracks and collision protection.

India has succeeded in making train travel safer over the years, but there is still a long way to go. The whole system needs realignment and distributed development. We cannot just focus on modern trains and have tracks that are unsafe, said Swapnil Garg, a former Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers officer.

Garg said the crash should shake up the entire rail system and prompt authorities to address the lax safety culture.

I don’t expect the authorities to turn the key and fix things quickly. India’s railway system is huge and it will take time to make it safer. But it takes a will, he says.