Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 01 Jun 2023 15:35

Little dated video, but still posting just for fun.....

1st Modern Railway Station* Rani Kamlapati Railway Station Inauguration Vlog
Video Date 16th Nov 2021

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 01 Jun 2023 15:48

While researching for various facts about Vandey Bharat, found this critical opinion, dates back to September 2019.......
May be more learned members of this thread can discuss & throw some lights on the points raised by author

https://railsamachar.com/english/?p=42

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 01 Jun 2023 18:50

HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE TODAY. MAIN ARM OF EDFC DOUBLE ELECTRIFIED TRACK FROM DADRI(UP) TO SONNAGAR(BIHAR) COMPLETED TODAY.

With the completion today of the Ahraura Rd, to DDU(Mughalsarai) yard 27km section EDFC (Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor) is complete from Dadri (UP) to Son Nagar(Bihar). What remains is the single lined 400km section from Khurja to Sahnewal(Ludhiana). Out of this 400km, 125km Khurja to Khatauli is operational. Dadri to Son Nagar runs parallel to the Delhi to Howrah Grand Chord route and with this the entire route between Dadri and Son Nagar is quadrupled and in places even pentupled. Dadri to Son Nagar distance is 900km

https://twitter.com/dfccil_india/status ... zOxZcuAAAA

On this 27km there is Jeonathpur between Ahraura and DDU yard and Jeonathpur is now an intermodal hub. The barge traffic port for IW-1 (Inland Waterway Route 1) Farakka to Varanasi on Ganga is here, EDFC and IR also have interconnections at Jeonathpur and also three national Highways all meet at Jeonathpur NH 44, 35, 19 and this is being developed as a major container terminal.

EDFC is 1330 km in length. The remaining 500km from Son Nagar to Dankuni GoI failed to attract interest for PPP mode development and WB govt did not cooperate and Jharkhand Govt also was non-cooperative. GoI will now after trying for 15 years pursue Son Nagar to Andal 350km a shortened EDFC. Andal is just inside the WB border from Jharkhand. There are quadruple IR tracks most of the way Dankuni to Andal so possibly it may not be a great loss. This 350km sections to be built passes through ghat section of Chotta Nagpur hills of Grand Chord, Gurpa to Gujhandi section, Gomoh and Dhanbad so connections with many coalfields and also through Asansol, Durgapur and finally Andal.

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 01 Jun 2023 20:31

Vande Bharat is no doubt important, but the MOST important thing is to meet the goals in this internal document of the Railways. Mission 3000 million tonnes of freight by 2027 and it is full of graphs. You have to bring down the cost of logistics from 14% of GDP to 8% of GDP. See the comparison bar graphs with other countries, There are tables of commodity baskets carried by Railways and by all transportation systems in India. Coal as expected is the biggest chunk for the Railways and remains so over the years as in that table, steel and cement are other commodities that make up a sizeable chunk of what the Railways transports. The document details what preparations have to be undertaken in railway yards, conversion of yards to smart yards to better process freight and take advantage of the higher speeds on the DFCs which will bring in their own problems of identifying wagons with bearing problems, hot box and hot wheel problems of flat wheels, installation of trackside pyrometers to measure temperature as a wagon flashes by ditto for Vande Bharat and other faster moving trains where manual inspection will not cut ice anymore. New improved wagons the BOXN-HS variety(HS stands for high speed) all have to be ordered in numbers. This is a document in PDF from October 2022.

https://indianrailways.gov.in/railwaybo ... MT3000.pdf

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 Jun 2023 07:26

Q. Asked by our Rail Mantriji:
Q Guess this train in making

Hint: Jack n Jill went up the hill.

(Photo Credit: Ashwini Vaishnaw)

Here is a different train: Can you guess where?

AkshaySG · Post by **AkshaySG** » 02 Jun 2023 23:07

Coromandel Express collides with Bangalore - Howrah superfast and a Goods train. 50 dead, 350 injured with numbers rising.

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/c ... 2023-06-02

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 02 Jun 2023 23:57

This derailment is really sad and a repeat of the horrible accident at Khanna (between Ambala and Ludhiana) some years ago. Same scenario. Golden Temple Mail speeding at 3am towards Amritsar from Mumbai central derailed due to a broken rail. Several coaches piled on to the Up line where minutes later a speeding Jammu Tawi to Sealdah Express rammed into the derailed coaches. 212 people died. It happened in November 1998 and the cold and early morning hours prevented efficient evacuation of the wounded and caused more deaths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khanna_rail_disaster

Metallurgical analysis revealed that the original broken rail that caused Golden Temple Mail/Frontier mail was due to hydrogen embrittlement, improper welding--- wet electrodes can allow "atomic" hydrogen to enter steel, defects in the manufacturing process at the steel plant and or corrosion due to open waste discharge those days or corrosion due to natural causes all cause hydrogen embrittlement which causes cracks to propagate along steel. The RDSO guidelines is that hydrogen in steel rails 880H should not exceed 1.8 ppm or even 1080HH rails. Here is a basic primer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_embrittlement

What caused the initial derailment of Coromandel express will be revealed by a safety board. This train has a jinx and this is not the first horrible derailment it has suffered. That is what I am telling the Vande Bharat crowd here, its ok but proper procedures to detect hot box(hot bearings) and hot wheels(wheels having flat pieces, you can detect the sound on some videos I have posted here, why is IR allowing such coaches to even get this far?? when even it is noticeable on a video) and hanging brake hoses and pipes are NOT in place on IR other than manual inspection and these need to be replaced by trackside pyrometers and other more sophisticated monitoring systems to catch problems before they become life threatening. In addition proper process has to be followed by welding teams who flout proper guidelines "chalta hai" attitude mixing thermite in tin cans etc. You need welding trucks that use high voltage current and melt the rails like the DFCs are doing. There are hardly enough such trucks to go around on IR and just recently someone was posting here a tender for ultrasonic crack detection mobile units. The tender called for 1 in every zone, that is crazy, with such a large amount of track kilometers, what will 1 unit do. One such accident at high speed on VB and you will kill a lot more people and no amount of the "pretty please" faltu pics posted here by some of you will help. I said so YOU DO NOT KNOW BASIC METALLURGY AND THE NETWORK. and will reiterate this. Its annoying to scroll down a bunch of useless stuff to reach a post that someone has posted that is serious information like AkshaySG's post informing about the accident.

The Railways initiated a program in 2018 to automate detection of coach, wagon and locomotive defects and trialled it at Panipat yard in Ambala division in Northern Railway. It was a success and the plan was to have 25 such "smart yards" with a national monitoring center at Delhi Kishenganj. The aim was to slowly expand to a very large number of yards. Trackside equipment was to instantly alert via SMS text and an alarm to staff monitoring digital equipment if a coach, wagon or locomotive had a problem.

I have observed that some posters on this forum go to a large number of threads to post inane stuff. The distinct impression I have is that this behavior reminds me of a dog going to several "posts"(pun intended) and lifting its leg and urinating against the post to mark in their mind some sort of territory. Such behavior as Shiv would say if one applies piskology betrays a rather fragile ego that needs gratification at every step. Just saying and observing.

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 03 Jun 2023 04:50

Instead of overly focusing on Vande Bharat all the time(incidentally tomorrow the Madgaon--Goa to Mumbai VB will be inaugurated) why don't people focus on strategic railway projects and supercritical projects?? Here is a list:

1. Sivok--Rangpo (Sikkim) railway line what is the progress, and on to Nathu La. 6 tunnels complete out of 14.

2. Jiribam--Imphal(Manipur) line, what happened with the violence there, did it delay the project. It was 93% complete
at last look.

3. Line to Aizawl in Mizoram.

4. Line to Kohima in Nagaland.

5. What is the LA issue in Meghalaya and line to Shillong status, with the Khasi students agitating against the line.

6. Third line works, Gudur to Vijayawada to Kazipet and on to Nagpur to relieve congestion. Chirala to Bapatla should be soon commissioned and so should Nidubrolu to Bapatla, leaving 100km between Vijayawada to Gudur to be tripled.

7. Katni grade separator, what is the progress?

8. Itarsi, Powarkheda to Jujharpur grade separator to relieve congestion in Itarsi., progress?

9. Mhow--Sanawad gauge conversion and Khandwa to Akot gauge conversion, providing the shortest route between Delhi and Hyderabad.

10. Indore to Manmad new line what is the status, has LA started?

11. Davangere to Tumkur new line, has the new KA government said anything with LA or will it kill this quick route to Hubli from
Bangalore?

12. Speed increase to 130 kmph on major sections of IR, where are we?

13. Pilgrim circuit, status of Varanasi---Ayodhya---Lucknow doubling and electrification, Prayagraj to Varanasi double line via Jhusi, Jhusi bridge over Ganga status?

14. WDFC status of sections under Tata projects??
OK this is for starters.

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 03 Jun 2023 05:22

OK to start things here is an interview with Mohinder Singh Project manager of Sivok--Rangpo line(Sikkim) 12,000 cr, Dec 2024 completion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeawMv-WLwU

yensoy · Post by **yensoy** » 03 Jun 2023 06:20

Derailment of coach/wagon resulting in infringement of opposite path, inevitably followed by collision and severe damage has become a not-so-rare occurrence. This has to be fixed systemically, if necessary by increasing separation between tracks. Signaling and sensors alone won't help because it will be too late. Of course track and bogies have to be maintained at a higher level of quality than they are today. We cannot have hundreds of people perish in an accident and claim to be a world power at the same time. The irony of introducing Vande Bharat when such accidents are happening is stark. It is not an isolated incident, just a few months ago EDFC (or some goods line I recall) was rendered out of service for basically the same cause, luckily no major death counts because it was goods + goods only.
(please don't give examples of Santiago de Compostela, or Hualien or Wenzhou - these have been studied extensively and circumstances leading to these disasters also criticized)

fanne · Post by **fanne** » 03 Jun 2023 06:54

I hope sabotage angle is looked into

ritesh · Post by **ritesh** » 03 Jun 2023 11:46

Despite the best efforts of Modi govt, the rail bhavan mandarins have been completely incompetent in taking railways into the 21st century.

Bharat cannot rise without doing away with britshit legacy be it in L&O admin judiciary or governance in general.

Faster we do away of all the colonial overhang of Brits and mugols better would be for dharmiks in general.

Om Shanti Shanti to the departed souls.

Cyrano · Post by **Cyrano** » 03 Jun 2023 14:19

Why post such utter rubbish? Do you even read what you post? If you just want to vent go to twitter etc.

SBajwa · Post by **SBajwa** » 03 Jun 2023 15:21

This looks like a sabotage where the culprits knew 3 trains and their timings and only derailed one to cause this.

Remember all the incidents of stoning Vande Bharat and failed derailments

rajkumar · Post by **rajkumar** » 03 Jun 2023 17:54

vsunder wrote:Instead of overly focusing on Vande Bharat all the time(incidentally tomorrow the Madgaon--Goa to Mumbai VB will be inaugurated) why don't people focus on strategic railway projects and supercritical projects?? Here is a list:

1. Sivok--Rangpo (Sikkim) railway line what is the progress, and on to Nathu La. 6 tunnels complete out of 14.

2. Jiribam--Imphal(Manipur) line, what happened with the violence there, did it delay the project. It was 93% complete
at last look.

3. Line to Aizawl in Mizoram.

4. Line to Kohima in Nagaland.

5. What is the LA issue in Meghalaya and line to Shillong status, with the Khasi students agitating against the line.

6. Third line works, Gudur to Vijayawada to Kazipet and on to Nagpur to relieve congestion. Chirala to Bapatla should be soon commissioned and so should Nidubrolu to Bapatla, leaving 100km between Vijayawada to Gudur to be tripled.

7. Katni grade separator, what is the progress?

8. Itarsi, Powarkheda to Jujharpur grade separator to relieve congestion in Itarsi., progress?

9. Mhow--Sanawad gauge conversion and Khandwa to Akot gauge conversion, providing the shortest route between Delhi and Hyderabad.

10. Indore to Manmad new line what is the status, has LA started?

11. Davangere to Tumkur new line, has the new KA government said anything with LA or will it kill this quick route to Hubli from
Bangalore?

12. Speed increase to 130 kmph on major sections of IR, where are we?

13. Pilgrim circuit, status of Varanasi---Ayodhya---Lucknow doubling and electrification, Prayagraj to Varanasi double line via Jhusi, Jhusi bridge over Ganga status?

14. WDFC status of sections under Tata projects??
OK this is for starters.

Good list, let's do some digging

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 03 Jun 2023 18:32

Here are some more questions

1. What happened to new DFCs that were proposed, East coast DFC, East to West DFC, has CCEA cleared them?

2. Bhanupali to Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh line) under construction status, and status of this line onwards to Leh? Strategic line.

3. Bangalore Cantt to Whitefield quadrupling status?

4. Bangalore to Hosur doubling project status?

5. Bangalore commuter line project, what happened after new govt took over as K-RIDE was implementing it?

6. Station re-development projects at Kanpur, Thrissur, Rameshwaram, Kanniyakumari, Trivandrum, Bangalore Cantt., and a whole lot of other places that are tendered out.

7. Guntur----Narasaraopet-----Nandyal---Dhoni---Guntakal doubling an important East-west doubling connecting eastern ports and Mormugoa. Follow the channel My Way Railway with his Telugu commentaries on youtube on this part, excellent coverage.

8. Doubling and Electrification in Goa that has been held up by church groups and moving very slowly, progress?

9. Penukonda to Dharmavaram doubling to finish Bangalore to Mumbai doubling, progress? Dec 2024 is completion but nobody has posted any videos for months

10. Pune to Miraj doubling lot of work left as LA was hindered a lot by Pawarful lobbies near Karad and other places. Also CR is a bad, inefficient zone. Londa to Miraj is very close to being entirely doubled and should be in about 3-4 months. This was a Suresh Prabhu initiated project. A lot of the projects here were initiated by him and it is he who got the lumbering Railway ministry moving after the lethargy of UPA.

11. New Pamban Bridge to Rameshwaram which is close to completion by August(??) Old Pamban bridge is now closed since Feb. no trains to Rameshwaram.

12. Third lining between Howrah and Nagpur, more or less the sections left are Kharagpur to Tatanagar which is also mostly done and Gondia to Nagpur where tripling is done in parts. What is the status?

13. There are a large number of projects of new lines and doubling in Odisha that were completed under the radar or are still going on. Some new lines are through Naxal belts. For example this expressway though a road project scarcely gets mention in the national press though work is ongoing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raipur%E2 ... Expressway

Here are some Odisha projects most for evacuation of coal and minerals:

Supercritical project as identified by Railways:
https://odishabytes.com/odisha-96-38-co ... -complete/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cit ... 434062.cms

https://www.sagarmala.gov.in/projecttra ... -sambalpur

14. Jhansi to Agra Cantt. Third line and Chambal river bridge status? Jhansi to Bina third line status, 73% complete.
It is enough if some of you "adopt" some of these projects and become the "domain expert" on this forum, provide videos from a man on the scene viewpoint and some commentary if the video is in Telugu, Tamil etc for the nonspeaker. Usually such videos are the best as there is some skin in the game rather than cut and paste. I am not saying cut and paste is bad, but verify by a secondary source and practice due dilligence.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 03 Jun 2023 21:25

SBajwa wrote:This looks like a sabotage where the culprits knew 3 trains and their timings and only derailed one to cause this.

Remember all the incidents of stoning Vande Bharat and failed derailments

Looking like an error in the switching circuits or it could also be human error but the status of the red and green signal lights is unclear at present.

It's likely that after the goods train was switched to the loop line, it appears like the points did not move back to the main line (even though they were correctly switched to move back to the main line per one report) What happened with the signal lights are not very clear and also if it happened, in fact, due to a circuit error or failure, or was it due to an unfortunate human error

The train that derailed was moving at full speed on one of the main lines but it derailed when it negotiated the curve to the loop line at the same high speed.

The accident happened at the Balasore station. The tracks in this entire section have already been doubled a long time ago and because it was at the station that the goods train had been shifted to the loop line to allow for the faster passenger train to take priority.

But one fact has emerged and that is the the derailment and collision happened when the fast moving passenger train negotiated the loop line curve at high speed and hit the goods train waiting on the lop line

The Balasore. station has two main lines and two loop lines, one attached to each of the main lines

Difficult to predict the movement of the goods train where the priority is always for the passenger trains. At the slightest requirement for a clear track, the goods train gets moved to a loop line to wait indefinitely until the track is available for the slower moving goods train..

So, SBajwa ji,

Your theory is highly unlikely because the chances of these trains arriving at the Balasore station and being available simultaneously at that point in time and space for any mischief maker to do the dirty is less than miniscule

Remember the departed..

Sabko Param Gati Mile.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 04 Jun 2023 01:48

Very tragic.
During this very tragic situation, I am comforted by rescue efforts. I am impressed with out Railway minister,
Sharing two pictures:

The best Railway Minister in perhaps his worst adversity .. handling the situation and relentlessly standing at site during rescue operation..

- For US Audience, one of the news story I found is relatively not that bad (like many other stories - which has little news and lot of showing irrelevant negative stories..etc.. so sharing the url
.. nation's worst rail disasters

sanman · Post by **sanman** » 04 Jun 2023 09:09

Lots of empty job posts in railways -- is this true?

https://www.newindianexpress.com/thesun ... 64035.html

Cyrano · Post by **Cyrano** » 04 Jun 2023 14:57

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 05 Jun 2023 00:25

^^^ Thanks,
I have lot of admiration for Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Sharing a nice thread

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 05 Jun 2023 00:53

The root cause of this accident has been identified. PM Modi inspected the site yesterday. We will try to restore the track today. All bodies have been removed. Our target is to finish the restoration work by Wednesday morning so that trains can start running on this track: Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

williams · Post by **williams** » 05 Jun 2023 03:48

What worries me is the rumors floating around that there was signal interference. The accident spot is a mere 13 km from the sensitive DRDO ITR, ie some of the sensitive goods will be transported to Balasore.

rahulm · Post by **rahulm** » 05 Jun 2023 04:06

Impressive speed of restoration and AV was there on site all the time until the lines were restored.

This vdo shows the first (goods) train to pas thru post restoration. I am surprised its a elec loco. To me it looks like a WAG9 with empty wagons. This means OHE has been fully restored on that line.

I was expecting only track to be restored with Diesels running for a few days but no, they have managed to "fully fit" one line at 12:05 AM.

It seems the second line will will also be "fully fit" in a few hours (may have happened by now).

Its am impressive recovery to service since Friday.

Also, unlike in the past, there was no IA deployment to assist clean up. NDRF was up to the task which implies it has reached a good level of resourcing, skills and capabilities.

Cyrano · Post by **Cyrano** » 05 Jun 2023 14:08

Yes, tragic as it is, it's heartening to see the response and commitment at every level.

For the first time I have seen some use of body bags. A few suggestions that can help NDRF and RPF / Police manage such situations even better:

- Cordon off accident sites as soon as they reach the site. Local helpers may sometimes do more harm than good, including to themselves. In some cases forensic evidence may be lost or corrupted.

- Transporting the injured in any available vehicle may seem like a good idea, but it can also cause serious harm or loss of life. Only ambulances with trained staff must handle the injured and dead once they reach the site

- NDRF had set up a field hospital in Turkey, not sure why this couldn't be done here. It can serve to perform triage, stabilise and then transfer the wounded for further care.

- They can use mobile electronic display boards with PA system to inform locals and non authorised to stay away and flash help line numbers, hospital to which the wounded are being sent, where is the dead bodies are being kept for identification etc. It will automatically get relayed by news channels.

- They need to have mobile resting and eating facilities for their own personnel.

- integrate all such things into an incident level based modular rescue and aid mobile camp/village. At least 1 such village capacity per state, ideally per each city with population > 1 crore.

India is a huge country with a huge population. Our disasters will need a very wide scaling capacity like no other country, except perhaps China.

And all NDRF people must wear gloves during field work. If hands are injured the person becomes useless.

Just a few observations.

Of course great respect and pranaams to their heroic work in extreme situations.

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 06 Jun 2023 09:58

Time has an article with a link to a document reporting a previous incident with a bad signal interlock. That did not result in a collision fortunately.
Look for the link to the letter by a railways manager named Verma.

India train accident

Cyrano · Post by **Cyrano** » 06 Jun 2023 13:08

There would be hundreds of thousands of points set using different levels of interlock. Manual, electronic and electronic relay IIRC. In the accident spot, the highest level of interlock was already implemented, which goes into failsafe mode and defaults the signal to red if the point is set incorrectly for whatever reason be it mech failure, cable cut, mechanism blocked etc.

The system works at a very high Sigma level if not we'd be having such accidents all over the huge network and all the time.

Of course no system is immune to tampering inadvertent or deliberate. That's what the CBI investigation will determine.

Rakesh · Post by **Rakesh** » 06 Jun 2023 20:59

Toilet gets called out...

98% of India's rail tracks were laid between 1870 and 1930
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 757132.cms
05 June 2023

https://twitter.com/SpokespersonIR/stat ... 82563?s=20 ---> We reject this @timesofindia article as baseless & devoid of facts. Irresponsible journalism at such a sensitive juncture is not something expected from a media house of your stature.

Here is a comparison of Running Track kilometers:

* 1950-51: 59,315 KM
* 2022-23: 1,07,832 KM

https://twitter.com/SpokespersonIR/stat ... 31009?s=20 ---> Editors at TOI should have checked these numbers before reporting them as facts. You are requested to kindly take this down.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 06 Jun 2023 21:37

Rakesh wrote:Toilet gets called out...

98% of India's rail tracks were laid between 1870 and 1930
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 757132.cms
05 June 2023
https://twitter.com/SpokespersonIR/stat ... 82563?s=20 ---> We reject this @timesofindia article as baseless & devoid of facts. Irresponsible journalism at such a sensitive juncture is not something expected from a media house of your stature.

Here is a comparison of Running Track kilometers:

* 1950-51: 59,315 KM
* 2022-23: 1,07,832 KM

https://twitter.com/SpokespersonIR/stat ... 31009?s=20 ---> Editors at TOI should have checked these numbers before reporting them as facts. You are requested to kindly take this down.

saar,

This is a toolkit in action

It's not as though toilet did not know

by now gora papers would have picked up and disseminated this news and the damage is already done

The gov should immediately stop funding all news papers and media via the govt ad route and start publishing employment and other media concerning govt department's news on the web.

No one will care or even bother to print retractions if any

Also, need to check the true offshore ownership of these media outlets and make public all such news

why just ask for it to be taken down, legal action should follow.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 07 Jun 2023 03:10

CBI takes over probe into Odisha train accident case, files FIR

The CBI filed an FIR under Sections 337 (whoever causes hurt to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life), 338 (causing grievous hurt by an act endangering life or personal safety of others), 304 A (causing death by negligence), and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Root cause, politics: Possible reasons for CBI inquiry into Odisha train accident that killed 278 people

Here are the possible reasons why a CBI inquiry was ordered in the Odisha train accident case.

Root cause: The root cause, according to the authorities, is a change in the electronic interlocking system, which is most likely not just a technical malfunction and required human interference. A CBI investigation might look into the possible motive or ignorance.

Quick fix for green signal to Coromandel likely cause of Odisha train accident

A ‘location box’, typically placed along tracks, holds a junction of connections to the point motor (the movable piece of rail that physically guides a train to its designated track when there are two divergent tracks), the signalling lights, the track-occupancy detectors, and virtually every critical piece that makes the ‘interlocking’ work seamlessly. Interlocking is a crucial safety mechanism and ensures trains move without any conflict with each other, preventing accidents.

In the ‘fail-safe’ logic built into Railway’s interlocking system, the main line on which the Coromandel Express was to pass, could not have got a “green” signal — a line clear signal — if the boom barrier of the level crossing was not down.
By looping the location box, the technician achieved an “all clear” signal for the Coromandel Express, overriding the fail-safe logic manually. In other words, the technician manually “completed” the circuit, bypassing certain nodes in a manner that the system would not recognise anything was amiss.
“This would have gone undetected but for one thing. The point, 17A,” said a senior official who is in the know of things. This manual act did not relay to the system that while the “all clear” signal was achieved, the point remained directed towards the loop line.
....
Pointing to a possible explanation why technicians on the ground “tampered” with the location box, the officials said, this helped them bypass a cumbersome “due process” of disconnecting an interlocking system that is also time consuming.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 07 Jun 2023 03:12

^^Looks like the root cause may be someone attempting a jugaad short-cut to get around a malfunctioning level crossing gate instead of following established procedures because they took too long, without realizing the possible consequences of their actions. Just a depressing read but unsurprising. This kind of situation is never down to one or two individuals but is always systemic. We don't know if these individuals were being pressured by superiors to finish the work quickly and if using such jugaad methods had been encouraged in the past or if they had been trained well enough to understand the dangers of doing it. 300 people paid with their lives for that.

We can only hope the CBI probe nails everyone involved and not just that lone technician.

yensoy · Post by **yensoy** » 07 Jun 2023 06:15

+100 yes these kinds of workarounds are always systemic and it just so happens that this one instance led to disaster; an audit is certain to cover many more of these.

Cyrano · Post by **Cyrano** » 07 Jun 2023 15:00

In my news feed a couple of days ago, here was an article by a very senior ex IR official complaining that the speed of transformation in IR was too intense and the govt needs to slow down. If not it causes temptations to take shortcuts leading to disasters seemed to be the drift.

Didn't read the full article and can't find it now. If anyone has it, please do post a link.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 08 Jun 2023 00:21

For me Ashwini Vaishnaw has a huge respect. I know the guy for quite a while and am quite impressed. Just a week or so ago, he was in USA promoting good work. (His other hat is IT minister) .. I posted in the other dhaga.. The man never gets tired.
viewtopic.php?p=2590674#p2590674

Meanwhile, Purdue is in news again signs a landmark deal in presence of India's honorable Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
Purdue and India establish milestone semiconductor alliance; sign partnership in the presence of Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
Agreement provides foundation to advance workforce development, joint research and innovation, and global industry collaborations

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 08 Jun 2023 00:27

Cyrano wrote:In my news feed a couple of days ago, here was an article by a very senior ex IR official complaining that the speed of transformation in IR was too intense and the govt needs to slow down. If not it causes temptations to take shortcuts leading to disasters seemed to be the drift.

Didn't read the full article and can't find it now. If anyone has it, please do post a link.

The temptation to take shortcuts is always present in every system. The antidote to that is a safety culture with proper supervision and punitive measures if necessary to discourage such practices. And this has to be from the top down. Just look at the airline industry. Overall it is very safe thanks to new technology and better training but most of the accidents that do happen could have been avoided if pilots, airlines or maintenance personnel had just followed the procedures that already exist while doing their jobs.

As for IR, the transformation is intense now because there was none for far too long and now we have to play catch-up. I'm not sure how the IR official can blame accidents on transformation when there were far more of such disasters years ago when there was zero transformation happening in IR.

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 08 Jun 2023 01:58

The Entire East Coast is a mess. I have been saying this repeatedly that the system has little capacity and lines have been running at 120% capacity. I even put put in a tutorial of how to use Scott's formula to calculate capacity on sections. In the Vande this and Vande that which is the sh**t posters put here all got lost and now all are scurrying around like mice.

The CCEA plan to have an East Coast DFC is more urgent than ever. Look at the ore, coal freight movement it is very heavy. DFCs are not like building your 3 BHK in NOIDA. The main arm of the EDFC took years and years to build and only after 2014 actual construction started and the sootiya Railway board took 9 years to finally complete 900km from Dadri to Mughalsarai last week. This will allow down time on the tracks used by passenger trains for maintenance on the Howrah--Delhi route.

Regarding East coast land is a big problem and the Railways have no clear direction and budget. They get X amount of rupees per zone and then that goes for a whole number of projects. They do two or three block section line tripling and then wait for next tranche. So what I am saying is that the east coast DFC is phucked because of LA problems and the Railways has sort of gone in for slow line tripling in tiny sections. For example Vijayawada to Gudur on East coast, project started in 2014, 294 km tripling. In the 9 years still 100 km left for tripling. While DFC say EDFC 900 km finished by high quality quadrupled track, high speed turnouts, ROBs and Rail flyovers and all the gizmos because the GoI made it a SPV. You see the difference a steady budget and a separate corporation can do? Now this tripling on Vijayawada to Gudur will soon be overtaken by capacity, see my uploaded IR report on 3000MT loading by 2027. Then they will start with quadrupling the tracks when the capacity is already not there. Of course LA is the domain of idiot state CMs and both Telangana and AP have bonafide idiots who have contributed multiple ways ON RECORD to screwing IR with slow LA and now you can put KA in that basket.

The tripling further up Kharagpur ---Balasore----Bhadrak----Vijayawada is proceeding at even more glacial pace when quadrupling is the need of the hour. The freights have to be out of the passenger tracks and segregated in high density, high speed corridors. East Coast is a time bomb waiting to happen and it happened. Same thing is happening on the spine Delhi---Nagpur---Kazipet----Chennai. Block section by block section they are tripling and its a Band Aid at best to a very serious lack of capacity.

The Government in the last few days has woken up by indicating that one should use RSR, that is rail from the pit head to a port like Paradip and then ship and then rail again. Some people advocate power plants at the pit head then the cost of transmission of electricity is cheaper by wire than coal etc by rail. But having power plants at pit heads has serious environmental implications--- think Singrauli a mess.

http://www.worstpolluted.org/projects/display/147

But barge traffic is an alternative, though some say Bay of Bengal has a lot of storms, I do not know about that. Maybe some of the freight can indeed be moved by coastal barges, but then IR may cry as it means eating into their revenue, and throw a ruckus, they have been known to have a dog in the manger attitude in the past.

The land issue is pretty bad in AP. I do not like some of the geometry of the loops at wayside stations in the line tripling between Vijayawada and Gudur, but that is what they had to do with Land constraints. I have never been impressed with the intelligence of Railway board members, they just want to fill the position and quitely retire, never innovate or do some serious change, innovation is not in their blood, preserving the status quo is. I can give umpteen examples but what goes whose father and I have better and more important things to do.

Regarding East Coast DFC it was announced and then dropped along with East to West DFC, then on again, but CCEA has not cleared it and I have seen no DPR.

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 08 Jun 2023 05:43

I consider SCR among the better zones on IR whose construction department does better than other zones. They are doing Vijayawada to Gudur tripling. Even they have taken 9 years to triple 194km out of 294 km. End of this month they will finish Bapatla to Chirala another small section. Same Bapatla where AP agriculture univ. is.

Same glacial pace on the other trunk line Delhi to Chennai in SCR section. 207km Kazipet to Vijayawada, they have just about crossed 70km of line tripling in 9 years and this is also a VB route now and heavy coal moves from Singareni collieries and also ore. They just completed a 2-block section near Warangal and commissioned yesterday. That brought it to 70km.

Further North, Kazipet to Balharshah again going for 9 years, some 140 km done of line tripling out of 235km. Balharshah to Kazipet has a nunber of thermal stations like the super thermal station at Mancherial, coal washeries and ore processing plants and sees very heavy freight traffic clogging the main line. Tripling is band aid, by the time they finish it will be time to quadruple here.

If SCR is doing this, think of the other sh***y zones like NER, NFR, CR etc. Its crap there. For example CR has done nothing between Nagpur and Balharshah in the 9 years since line tripling was sanctioned Delhi to Chennai and today chairman railway board is Lahoti GM of CR, why should this useless c**t
be rewarded for non-performance. Same with Kasara to Kalyan tripling, dead in the water after 9 years and this useless f***k was running CR and he got rewarded. Its because CR is only focused on Mumbai suburban and does not care for anything else in its zone. Nagpur to Itarsi tripling same nonsense just a tiny part is tripled in the Satpura ghat section and lots of tunnels etc in Maramjhiri to Dharakoh section on this important Delhi to Chennai tripling languishes. Again CR lafda. CCEA sanctioned tripling thanks to Suresh Prabhu aeons ago and the dmb f**k railway guy says one should not have fast changes. What did they do for 9 years??

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 08 Jun 2023 19:57

The 175km EDFC single line section from Sahnewal(Ludhiana) to New Pilkhani near Saharanpur was targeted to open end June. But GMR missed multiple deadlines in the past. As I predicted they will run a freight June 10th between Sahnewal to Shambhu on the Punjab/Haryana border and declare a 81km section open of the EDFC. Rest of the package to Pilkhani is now targeted for August. In fact a small portion is left around Ambala, the Ambala bypass for track linking about 5km. On this 5km section EDFC goes over the GT road via a bridge and over the Delhi to Ambala line by means of a rail flyover. Electrification work and station buildings remain to be completed between Shambhu and Pilkhani. All of the track is laid except for this 5 km section in the remaining 93km piece from Shambhu to New Pilkhani. This is a horribly congested section between Saharanpur to Ludhiana with freight clogging up tracks esp coal movement. This package is being constructed by GMR group. New Pilkhani to Khurja package is being done by L&T and they have opened a 125km section there and a 75km section remains to be opened. Out of this 75km unfinished section only 45km of track linking is left from Rohana Kalan to New Pilkhani. The article linked below has quotes from DFCCIL officials.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/harya ... -10-512179

This video has commentary and shows the EDFC between Ambala and Rajpura. You can see track linking and some OHE work between Ambala and Shambhu which will be complete in August. After Shambhu you can see final touches being given to OHE etc for the June 10th inauguration Shambhu to Sahnewal(Ludhiana). EDFC crossesthe Ambala to Amritsar line by means of a rail flyover(DFCs never intersect IR tracks) and the alignment changes and then EDFC slopes down on the right all the way to Rajpura.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur7jo0_3aMo

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 09 Jun 2023 03:10

Just to show you how idiotic the Railways are with capacity augmentation. 219km third line Vijayawada to Kazipet on the Delhi to Chennai trunk route. See number 36 in this link, the project was sanctioned 2012-2013.

https://scr.indianrailways.gov.in/cris/ ... xure-1.pdf

Now only 70km of third line done from Vijayawada West receiving cabin to Errupalem commissioned and two days ago Chintalpalli to Nelkonda near Warangal was commissioned 2 block sections. That is 70km of track was laid in a decade and 140km still left. You can see a video shot by someone 6 months ago for this route and large sections have nothing going on not a trace of basic earthworks. Near Warangal you can see a short section of track near completion and that 15-20km section roughly that got commissioned a few days ago. This is the idiocy of the Railways, a bureaucratic, stupid organization. I am using their own documents ^^^ to screw these idiots. The line if any on the left is the new third line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3KKh23DpeA

There is some track linking near Dornakal in the video but that is not yet commissioned.

For comparison purposes, the DFCs between 2014 and 2023 have commissioned 1800km of double line track so far. That is what a SPV can accomplish and what sustained funding can do, albeit it comes from JICA and World Bank and there is a lot of oversight from the PMO for the DFCs.

Cyrano · Post by **Cyrano** » 09 Jun 2023 16:32

We need another Gadkari type zeal and determination to overcome these challenges in developing IR network for the next century. The challenge with IR is far more difficult, entrenched establishment within the IR monolith and their ecosystem of contractors will fight very hard to protect their baronies and cash cows.
AV may be up to it, lets see how far he gets in the remaining term.