The Kanchanjungha Express accident again highlights why epic tragedies still plague the trainwreck that is Indian Railways

Kanchanjungha Express

Almost a year to the date after the Balasore rail tragedy (June 2) shocked the Indian Railway ecosystem in 2023, another train accident in West Bengal on June 17 has brought rail safety back into the spotlight for the wrong reason, amid calls for railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to resign.

A goods train rammed into the stationary Kanchanjunga Express travelling from Agartala to Sealdah near New Jalpaiguri station on Monday night, killing at least nine people.

In the last 10 years, India has witnessed 10 major train accidents that have resulted in the deaths of nearly 600 people. But of late, the government has done some work to reduce this grim statistic.

In 2021-22, 17 people died due to train accidents, while eight people died in 2022-23. These two figures put the recent tragedy into perspective.

While the government has taken a number of steps to improve the safety features of Indian Railways (IR), the country is still plagued by epic tragedies.

How did the Kanchanjungha Express accident happen?

Initial IR reports suggest that the accident could be because of improper signalling given to the goods train’s loco pilot.

According to the reports, the automatic signalling system on the line was down and the trains were given ‘paper line clearance’ by the Rangapani station manager to cross.

The goods train had rammed the Kanchanjunga Express from the rear, derailing three of its coaches.

The driver of the goods train was issued a TA 912 document by the station master of Ranipatra. It authorised the driver to pass all red signals because the automatic signalling system was defective

“Automatic Signalling has failed and you are hereby authorized to pass all automatic signals between RNI (Ranipatra Railway Station) and CAT (Chattar Hat Junction),” the authority letter read.

The TA 912 permit is issued to a train driver when there is a fault in the automatic signalling system, and allows the driver to ignore all signals on the affected stretch, even if they are red.

IR officials also confirmed that the automatic signalling system between Ranipatra and Chattar Hat Junction had been malfunctioning since 5:50 am on the day of the crash.

The preliminary IR report also states that with the written permission, the deceased loco pilot was authorised to cross all the nine signals that fall between RNI and CAT at speed, irrespective of whether they are showing red or caution (yellow or double yellow).

Notably, the issuance of TA 912 in this case assumes there are no obstructions or other trains on the line in that section.

So why does India experience such tragedies periodically?

There are multiple doors that this can be laid at. Chief among them is the flawed philosophy behind railway development. Experts and former railway officials highlight how IR has focussed on adding new trains that run at a higher speed, while safety has been given short shrift, as railway policy is often used as a populist tool.

"Indian Railways is upgrading both tracks and rolling stock (engines, coaches, wagons, etc). But most of the time safety is not the primary criterion. When we promote Vande Bharat (trains), we talk about its speed. We don't claim it's safer," said Subodh Jain, former member, engineering, Indian Railways.

India’s 68,043-km railway network ferries more than 3,519 million people every year. It is the fourth largest after the US, China and Russia, but among these, it has seen the highest number of accidents and deaths in the last 10 years.

"The safety record has been improving over the years, but there is more work to do," said Prakash Kumar Sen, head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Kirodimal Institute of Technology, Raipur.

He added that while the railways has been introducing more trains to cope with soaring demand, the workforce required to maintain them has not kept pace.

"Workers are not trained adequately, or their workload is too high, and they don't get enough rest," Sen said, adding, "These tracks are very old and the load on them very high. If maintenance is not good, accidents will happen."

Safety should be a priority

Safety issues need to be a priority, with clear objectives, and execution needs to be monitored. Unfortunately, these are often spoken of only when there is an accident.

"The objective of the Special Railway Safety Fund was very clear. It identified the obsolete technology which we should get rid of. But that has not been done fully," Jain said.

Former Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani also said in a statement on June 18 that train accidents like the Kanchanjunga Express accident and Balasore incident last year are not merely a technical failure or lapse.

"Kanchanjunga Express accident and Balasore incident last year are not merely a technical failure or lapse, nor can the blame be only apportioned on the human resource, the fact remains that such lapses arise out of the manner in which the organization is governed," Lohani said.

He added that when he took over as railway board chairman in 2017 the government had multiple "first priorities."

"We can't have ten first priorities was my initial reaction and I began by making it clear that safety being priority one, safety considerations can override even operations," Lohani said.

Srinand Jha, an independent transport expert, said IR has been working on safety mechanisms such as anti-collision devices and emergency warning systems, but have been slow to install them across the network.

"They will tell you that accidents are at a very manageable level because they talk about them in percentages," Jha said, adding that in recent years the focus has been more on new trains and modern stations and not as much on upgrading tracks, signalling systems, and asset management.

"This accident brings out the need to focus more on these aspects," he said.

Similarly, a transport specialist working with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) told Moneycontrol on condition of anonymity that while the government has increased investment in railway safety in the last five years, India’s safety systems are still not not up to the mark.

"The problem is essentially political in nature. The political incentives are  such that passenger tariffs are kept ridiculously low while new trains are constantly introduced, burdening the track infrastructure to unbearable levels," the transport specialist said.

This person pointed out that the low tariffs lead to losses on the passenger operations side of the railways, which in turn mean that the resources available to enhance safety mechanisms remain minimal.

"The political incentives also come in the way of removing human encroachments on railway infrastructure—which is another source of casualties," he added.

Safety measures adopted by other countries

In the US and UK, the governments have privatised railway infrastructure including tracks, stations and rolling stock, which makes private companies liable for any accidents/delays and stoppages that may occur on their infrastructure.

Many statisticians and academics believe that the privatisation of the railway service in these countries has significantly contributed to the improvement of the railway infrastructure, which has also led to higher safety standards.

"My sense is that the train operators are very much more conscious of safety than the central government's operating divisions would have been, where it would have been a much more headquarters function than it is now. It has been brought home to people on the ground because they are legally responsible," said Andrew Evans, former professor of risk management at Imperial College, London.

Similarly, Malcolm Kenton, a US-based transportation industry analyst, said the privatisation of railway networks in that country has helped improve maintenance and infrastructure development on these networks.

"The vast majority of Federal Railroad Administration-regulated railroad tracks in the US are owned by private companies. These companies are required to maintain and invest in the infrastructure of these networks, which are subject to safety audits done by a central agency," Kenton said.