In the wake of the Jananeshwari Express train tragedy in West Bengal that claimed the lives of 148 people, a little known fact has emerged, Indian Railways still depends on an archaic and almost ancient method of alerting other trains in the vicinity, in case of an emergency.
The driver or the guard of the Jnaneshwari Express was expected to light up flares, stored in the locomotive engine and hold it up for oncoming trains to notice. The guard has also been provided with a set of explosives that will make a loud noise to alert other trains in the vicinity.
Unfortunately, both the driver and the guard did not have the time to look for the flare or the explosives as the goods train from the opposite direction came within 35 seconds and killed a majority of the passengers, who might only have been injured till then. Moreover the flare alert mechanism does not take into account poor visibility due to haze or sharp bends in which case it would be too late for driver of approaching train to take evasive action by the time he notices the flare.
A senior officer at the railway ministry said that as of now there is no system on the locomotive engine whereby trains and railway installations in the vicinity could be alerted in case of an emergency such as an accident. The much touted anti-collision device has not been installed on all the railway engines, and moreover it is only effective for two locomotives on the same track.
It is surprising that one of the biggest rail networks in the world, that boasts of ferrying over a 13 million passengers everyday doe not have a modern emergency alert system.
Aircrafts and shipping vessels have SOS system which alerts ships and control stations in a given range. Alerts could be sent by either by radio waves or satellite.
Such technology is available, it only needs to be implemented by the Railways to prevent a tragedy similar to one that befell the Jnaneshwari Express. A railway official said that a train needs about 1 km to completely come to a halt.
Even 30-35 seconds, the time taken by the goods train that hit the derailed coaches of Jnaneshwari express would be enough to slow it down, if it had been alerted by the driver or the guard of the derailed train.
