Report of Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) Correspondent
The Kanchanjunga Rail Accident which occurred in the morning hours of June 17th 2024 has claimed more than 15 lives and injured hundreds including the loco pilot and train manager. The Kanchenjunga express collided with a goods train at Rangapani Station, West Bengal.
As usual the railway authorities were quick to blame the accident on the loco pilots. However, the facts emerging show that it was a systemic failure due to multiple factors. The automatic signalling system had failed. As per the Railway Board’s own guidelines, expenditure on maintenance and replacing of aged automatic systems has to be incurred by the savings obtained by reducing the manpower!!
The Station Master had to rely on manual operation. No assistant station master is posted at this station. In heavily congested routes, it is not humanly possible to operate manually. There is no crises management system in place to guide the station master in such a situation and he is left all alone to handle it. Also, previously the station masters used to be sent on refresher training for 45 days periodically which has been drastically reduced to 18 days. There is a need to increase the safety category posts including station masters which the railways authorities have been refusing to do in the name of manpower reduction!
A similar accident happened in Vizianagaram, Andra Pradesh, on October 29, 2023, wherein two passenger trains collided, resulting in death of 14 persons. At that time, the Railway Minister was quick to put the blame on loco pilot and assistant loco pilot saying they were watching a cricket match! However, after a detailed enquiry by the Commissioner of Railway Safety, it was found that it was again a case of signal failure and station master had to give manual instructions to loco pilot and train manager.
The loco pilots and assistant loco pilots have long been demanding that they should not be asked to do more than two consecutive night duties. On June 2nd there was another accident where a goods train rammed into a stationary goods train at Ambala, Punjab. Here also the loco pilot and assistant loco pilot were doing their third consecutive night duty.
The loco running staff, led by All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA) has been agitating in Southern Railway since June 1st, 2024, demanding among other things that they should not be compelled to do more than two consecutive night duties.
All these facts show that the increasing number of accidents is entirely due to the neglect of the railway authorities in filling up all safety category positions which is resulting in overstressing of loco pilots, station managers, signal and telecommunication maintenance personnel, track maintainers, train managers, etc.