Long-considered the lifeline of the world’s most populous country, the 170-year-old system has seen rapid expansion and modernisation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push to boost infrastructure and connectivity in the fast-growing economy. This year, the government made a record 2.4-trillion-rupee ($30 billion) capital outlay for the railways, a 50% increase over the previous fiscal year, to upgrade tracks, ease congestion and add new trains.

A new, semi-high-speed train built in India and called the “Vande Bharat Express”, or “Salute to India Express”, is showcased as evidence of this modernisation, with Modi himself flagging off the first journeys of many of the trains around the country. But Friday’s crash has come as a jolt to this makeover, experts said.

“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 in central India and lead author of a 2020 study on “Causes of Rail Derailment in India and Corrective Measures”.

“Human error or poor track maintenance are generally to blame in such crashes,” Sen said. The railways have been introducing more and more trains to cope with soaring demand but the workforce to maintain them has not kept pace, he said. Workers are not trained adequately or their workload is too high, and they don’t get enough rest, Sen said.

The east coast route on which Friday’s crash occurred, is one of the country’s oldest and busiest, as it also carries much of India’s coal and oil freight, he said. “These tracks are very old … the load on them is very high, if maintenance is not good, failures will happen,” Sen said.

Good Safety Record

Indian Railways maintains that safety has always been a key focus, and points to its low accident rate over the years. “This question (on safety) is arising because there has been one incident now. But if you see the data, you will see that there have been no major accidents for years,” a railways ministry spokesperson said. The number of accidents per million train kilometres, a gauge of safety, had fallen to 0.03 in fiscal 2021-22 from 0.10 in 2013-14, the spokesperson said.

A 1-trillion-rupee, five-year safety fund created in 2017-18 has been extended for another five years from 2022-23, with a further 450 billion rupees of funding, after the first plan led to an “overall improvement in safety indicators”, he added. “Some malfunction has happened and that the inquiry will reveal,” he said, referring to Friday’s crash. “We will find out why it happened and how it happened.”

Srinand Jha, an independent transport expert and author at the International Railway Journal, said the railways have 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 always tell you that accidents are at a very manageable level because they talk about them in terms of percentages,” Jha said, adding that in recent years the focus has been more on new trains and modern stations and not as much on tracks, signalling systems and asset management. “This accident brings out the need to focus more on these aspects,” he said.

Source: Reuters

The post Odisha Train Accident: Deadly Rail Crash Shifts Focus From Vande Bharat Express To Safety appeared first on Rma News: Latest News, Live Breaking News, Today News, Political News Updates.

“When are the long waitlists in the Indian Railways going to end? With 2.7 crore waitlisted passengers denied a confirmed seat, the year registered the largest number of tickets that remained waitlisted before they were automatically cancelled,” Tharoor wrote on Twitter. This has been the trend, with every year breaking the previous year’s record, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.

“This has been the trend, with every year breaking the previous record. Introduction of #VandeBharat is welcome but the lopsided focus on it is worrying. In our 75th year of Independence, a confirmed railway berth should no longer be merely about luck but a normal facility. The matter must urgently seize the Government’s focused attention,” he added.

In a recent reply to an RTI plea filed by Madhya Pradesh-based activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur, the Railway Board revealed that in 2022-2023, 1.76 crore Passenger Name Record (PNR) numbers were logged, against which 2.72 crore passengers who were scheduled to travel, were automatically cancelled due to being waitlisted.

In 2021-2022, a total of 1.06 crore PNR numbers were logged, against which 1.65 crore passengers were scheduled to travel, were automatically cancelled. After cancellation of PNRs, the ticket fare is refunded to the passengers. The inability to provide confirmed tickets to passengers has been a recurrent problem with the national transporter, reported PTI.

On the other hand, the Indian Railways has launched multiple Vande Bharat Express trains across India, including the newly inaugurated Guwahati-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express, which was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the Northeast’s first Vande Bharat train.

Source: Bureau

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The factory saw a major shortfall in production at the end of FY 2022-23, having manufactured 1,478 coaches against a target of 1,885, according to a document accessed by PTI. The factory could manufacture only 153 3HP MEMU trains till March 2023, against a target of 256, and also fell short of its target for LHB coaches, manufacturing 1,325 of it against the goal of 1,520.

Officials said the production of Vande Bharat trains in the factory is likely to begin by September 2024. This year, the Railway Board has given RCF Kapurthala a target of 64 Vande Bharat Express trains. A senior ministry official said the RCF has not yet completed the process of approving the design sent by French multinational rolling stock manufacturer, Alstom, for Vande Bharat trains.

Out of 92 designs, only four have been approved, a delay that precludes any possibility of start of production of the semi-high speed trains in the current financial year. The rail factory has however put forth a series of reasons explaining why the production of various coaches and variants have been delayed.

According to the document, it said its production rate was affected by a spike in prices of raw materials which led to short fall in supply of trade items such as seats-berth, 60 KVA transformer, switch board cabinet, and shell components/ sub assemblies.

“There was serious shortage of wheel supply from May to September 2022 leading to loss of production. Production of 87 coaches was lost on this account. The delay in supply of electrics by BHEL resulted in production loss of MEMU rakes. VB Trainset Coaches delayed as RCF did not get electrics from M/s Medha,” the document said.

Desperate to lineup 75 trains by August 2024, the Railways has put into service every factory at its disposal — not just the RCF, but even Modern Coach Factory, Rae Bareilly, Latur Rail Coach Factory and BHEL.

Source: PTI

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While the current version of Vande Bharat Express will be the Chair Car variant for travel between cities located within a distance of 150-600 km, there will also be Vande Bharat Metro for cities within 100-150 km range serving as a Urban train connectivity network and also sleeper version of the Vande Bharat Express, covering distances above 600 km, replacing Rajdhani Express in the longer run. 

Among these, Indian Railways is further working to increase the speed of the Vande Bharat sleeper version that can touch a speed of 220 kmph, 40 kmph more than that of the chair car version of the current generation of Vande Bharat trains. The semi-high speed trains will be made using aluminium, instead of steel, which will reduce the weight of the train, hence increasing the speed.

While the top speed of the sleeper version of Vande Bharat trains will be 220 kmph, making them the fastest trains in India, it will run at a speed of 200 km per hour on the tracks said an Railway official earlier. This also means, once on tracks, the new sleeper Vande Bharat trains will replace Delhi-Meerut RRTS trains as the fastest train in India. The RRTS has a top speed of 180 kmph as well.

The current gen Vande Bharat Express has a top speed of 180 kmph, but only does 160 kmph (on certain sections) due to safety constraints. The Railways has issued a tender for 400 Vande Bharat trains. Some of the initial lot of such trains could also be sleeper versions of the indigenously made trains, according to officials. Four major domestic and foreign companies have come forward for the production.

According to the plan, the first 200 Vande Bharat trains will have the seating arrangement on the lines of Shatabdi Express and will be designed to travel at a speed of 180 km per hour. 

In the second phase, 200 Vande Bharat trains will be sleepers and they will be made of aluminium. “The second version of the sleeper Vande Bharat trains will run at a maximum speed of 200 km per hour. For this, the tracks of Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Kolkata railways are being repaired, signal system, bridges are being fixed, and fencing work is going on,” an official said, reported PTI. 

Source: Bureau

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It is the first of its kind premium semi-high speed aesthetically designed, well-equipped fully Air Conditioner service between Guwahati in Assam and New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal.

“The frequency of the train will be five days a week. There will be no service of this train on Tuesday,” the official said.

This new service will cover the distance of 411 km between Guwahati and New Jalpaiguri in 5 hours 30 minutes reducing the present shortest journey time by the speediest train significantly.

The Vande Bharat Express train service will operate six days a week discovering the new age rail travel with airlines like travel feelings for people of the northeast who will able to feel the comfort and speed during the journey.

This will be the fastest train in this sector and will benefit IT professionals, businessmen, students and tourists. Vande Bharat Express is the fulfilment of an ambitious plan laid by Indian Railways to pitchfork the standards and speed of rail travel in the country.

The ‘Make In India’ call of Prime Minister Modi has driven this initiative with the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coming up with this modern Semi-High Speed fully indigenous train showcasing superior aerodynamic design, highest operational speed, most aesthetic interiors, state-of-the-art safety features imbibing the latest rail technology. The approximate cost of each train set is around Rs 110 crore.

Vande Bharat Express runs as a self-propelled Semi-High Speed train set. The train set holds an aerodynamic design on both ends, which significantly reduces air drag and gives the train a futuristic look. The train set is equipped with the Centralized Coach Monitoring and Control System. It has eight coach Chair Car configurations, stainless steel car body with a seating capacity of 530 passengers with maximum utilization of onboard space.

The Executive chair cars of Vande Bharat Express have a seating capacity of 52 each, normal Chair cars have a seating capacity of 78 each and the driving trailer coaches have a seating capacity of 44 each.

Equipped with driver-guard communication with a voice recording facility, the bogies of Vande Bharat Express are equipped with fully suspended traction motors for 160 kmph operational speed.

The train is equipped with ‘KAVACH, the indigenously developed Train Collision Avoidance System with optimum reliability. Advanced state-of-the-art suspension system ensures smoothness on move in the train.

Green footprint plans have been prioritized by dispensing with power cars and saving about 30 per cent of electricity with an advanced regenerative braking system.

The braking system is electro-pneumatic with disc brakes mounted directly on wheel disks, significantly reducing braking distance. Signal exchange lights on the coaches enable the hassle-free exchange of signals with wayside stations when the train is on the move.

Superior floodproofing for under-slung electrical equipment is done to enable withstand floods up to a height of 650 mm. This energy-efficient train has a faster turnaround time in comparison to others.

Source: ANI

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