“Improving Safety in Railways”

Safety in Indian Railways

Executive Summary
Safety was listed as one of the most important priority for Railways by citizens in a recent community poll. Concerns included Safety of Passengers where the threat comes from thieves, criminals, vendors as well as at times other passengers. The other aspects of Safety where the citizens are concerned include frequent train collisions between trains, at crossings, acts of terrorism, the lack of general safety in trains and at stations. The 50,000 strong “Making Railways Better” online citizen community has come together to collectively identify the key issues, root causes and solutions for Improving the state of Safety in Indian Railways and the community expects that Ministry of Railways will work towards implementing the identified solutions.

Issues and Root Causes Identified:
1. No guards in the compartments even at night time
2. Frequent bullying of ordinary class passengers by groups of passengers traveling on Season tickets
3. The train driver has no idea of what is going on in the compartments
4. People without tickets or with waiting tickets can easily walk into a reserved compartment
5. Eve teasing is very common on railway stations
6. Thefts and armed robberies happen in trains
7. Luggage is often stolen inside trains and on platforms
8. Safety of women and children is a big concern
9. No security at stations allowing anyone to enter without tickets
10. Vendors, Beggars and anyone can board a train anywhere
11. No CCTV monitoring in trains and stations
12. No information display inside the train
13. AC coaches catching fire due to short circuits
14. No precautions against fire. No fire alarms installed
15. Train and the platform are not at the same level which warrants danger for the passengers
16. Lack of first aid kits
17. A lot of cities still have single track connectivity
18. Signalling and interlocking is done manually
19. No systems to operate the train in heavy fog
20. Railway tracks not in their prime position
21. Absence of an auto braking system in case of an emergency
22. Accidents at unmanned railway crossings

Solutions Identified:
1. Auto allocation of berths can be done as - families in separate coaches & single male passengers in separate coaches to avoid any nuisance to families. Berth to single lady passengers to be allotted in family coach
2. Police verification of pantry staff in train should be done
3. Effective 24 by 7 CCTV monitoring at all major railway stations
4. CCTV at both doors to be installed in all coaches
5. Announcement system Or Panic Button to be installed in all coaches so that any passenger observing theft/ danger/ fire etc. can inform to security personnel/ guard Immediately
6. More number of Railway police should be on board on each train
7. Railway Police Force should be empowered
8. Ban on alcohol and smoking must be enforced
9. Railway Police Force should take continuous rounds within train to keep watch. Usually they move once and then sit somewhere.
10. Computer controlled automatic signalling system and anti-collision devices must be used
11. Technology powered monitoring centers should be established to monitor and manage the rail network on the same lines as air traffic control
12. Study on material used to build coaches required to make it fire resistant
13. Alertness, quick action and presence of mind are key factors for security personnel. They should be trained vigorously on this. Current observation is - they are lethargic, do not take pride in their job, somehow finish one round and then relax.
14. If security personnel want to question any passenger, it must be done in front of camera (located at gates) to avoid any complaint on harassment by them as well as false claims by passengers
15. Drivers should be better trained

Safety in Indian Railways – A few posts and comments:
1. Glassless windows, No proper lighting in the nights are common things specially in passenger trains – H V Dwaraka Nath

2. Manually lockable door, it should lock automatic after locking confirmation the train should leave the platform. Station entry should done only by the travellers not even relatives who will come to drop at the station – Sunil Gupta

3. Many a times, passengers tend to fall sick during their journeys. Well, in such cases, the only solution as of now is to get in touch with a Doctor's at the nearest Railway Station for immediate check-up. I feel, there should be a provision making Medical Representative or Doctor available during the journey – Harsh Parikh

4. Passengers without reserved tickets or waiting list tickets shouldn’t be allowed into the reserved compartments unless the TTE permits them – Kamakshi Tangirala

5. When a drunken-driver is caught during night patrolling, he is directly sent to jail to spend the night in jail, and then produced in court the next day (this happens in Mumbai and helped reduce drunken-driving cases drastically) – Shibashish Satpathy

6. Why not consider thin sliding doors for all compartments instead of only for first class? That way, walkways can be brightly lit as the sleeper berths are isolated – Balajee Ge

7. Like black box in flights, similar system to be arranged in every compartment and engines for investigation, security and safety purpose – Madusudana Rao

8. CCTV should be installed in the coaches and Guard should monitor as well as central monitoring system to monitor. CCTV must in ladies compartment – Ganapathy Suresh

9. Why can’t we make ramp for going from one platform to another platform in place if so tiresome high stair cases on the stations which will make the movement of the old sick woman and all with heavy luggage easy n comfortable like the hospitals and even in some of the very good old palaces u can find – Sanjay Saraswat

10. Each Reserved coach should be manned by one TTE allotted for that particular coach and he should be in the coach for entire journey period for looking after the wellbeing of the passengers – Kaushik Chakrabarty

11. There are stations with platform length shorter than the train. Lights are not enough. Nowadays the train leaves the station without any whistle and one may fall down while boarding or otherwise. There is nothing to communicate with the guard or the driver in emergency. There should be trolley system to avoid the absence of coolies. On bigger stations there should be battery operated vehicles like at air ports. The TTS are not found on their earmarked berths. Unauthorised children brooming and begging inside the coach makes the luggage unsafe. Passenger should not be allowed to play songs on their instruments loudly. First Aid should be in every reservedcoach. Unmanned crossings should be converted into under pass or over bridge – Devendra Pratap Singh

12. Coach conductors hesitate to take action against anti-social rowdies even when the passengers are ready to make written complaints against them. Likewise no action is taken against the drunken persons who give trouble to co passengers – Krishan Ramachandran

13. Security cams in each compartment of local trains and railway stations can be helpful. Also each compartment can be equipped with communication device to connect to the train driver or guard for giving a SOS – Ganesh Prabhakaram

14. Provision of proper fire extinguisher is required in the railway system – Anirudha Verma

15. Make the entire train under control of driver. They only can open and close the doors – Murali Kota

16. I believe that the train doors should be upgraded to the electronic card swiping system. Every authorized passengers should be provided with the electronic card which will be reusable by means of which the authorized passengers will be entitled to be in the train – Saswata Choudhury

17. Need to make Safety personal. We ignore even the most basic, yet life-saving safety procedures. So start with small measures and take step by step to more serious issues – John Daniel