Railways: Choice and Competition–VI

In some of the more modern expansions that are being contemplated, there will be a complete segregation of railway tracks and no level crossings. But until then, we are stuck with fog.

The usual caveat (of this not being views of the Committee) applies.

I am going to deviate from the trend of the last few columns and focus on something very specific. That’s because of a question asked by Sumit Kashyap Jha. Why are so many trains cancelled because of fog conditions?

With modern technology, surely we can do better. If technological solutions are resorted to, does visibility matter? Notice that disruption of rail (passenger and freight) traffic because of fog isn’t peculiar to India. For instance, this year, there have been reports of disruption and passenger resentment in Britain too. Notice that flights are also disrupted because of fog, despite technology.

First, what does IR do? Fog is primarily a North Indian phenomenon and affects nine zones—NR (Northern Railway), NCR (North Central Railway), NER (North Eastern Railway), ECR (East Central Railway), ER (Eastern Railway), NFR (North Frontier Railway), SER (South Eastern Railway), ECOR (East Coast Railway) and NWR (North Western Railway). The timeline is from the second half of December to the middle of February. If you want me to be even more specific, the segments affected are Delhi-Allahabad-Mughalsarai-Howrah, Delhi-Lucknow-Chhapra-Barauni-Katihar-Guwahati, Delhi-Mughalsarai-Gomoh-Ranchi/Hatia, Delhi-Ambala-Jammu Tawi/Amritsar, Delhi-Bhatinda-Sri Ganganagar, Ajmer-Jaipur-Rewari-Hisar-Dhuri-Amritsar, Ajmer-Jaipur-Rewari-Bhatinda-Amritsar and Howrah-Kharagpur-Puri.

This is known from past experience. Also from past experience, one knows there will be a disruption of roughly 20%. Trains will leave late. Because they reach late, return journeys will have to be rescheduled. I am stating it a bit simply, but what happens is something like this. Each of those nine zones is asked, since there will have to be that overall reduction of 20%, which trains do you want to cancel? Choose the ones that have low occupancy.

Once this has been decided, during those foggy months, one can announce cancelled trains well in advance. This doesn’t always happen. As far as I can make out, there are two reasons for this. First, public dissemination of information hasn’t been IR’s strong suit. Second, you don’t want to cancel trains if you can avoid it. Hence, there is a reluctance to announce cancellations. After all, 20% is a thumb rule and fog is variable.

Fog means visibility is impaired and the driver cannot see. He can’t see signals and can’t decide when speed has to be reduced. After all, safety cannot be compromised. I have mentioned IR’s safety figures in an earlier column. But let me give you some more figures, compared to Europe and you will be surprised.

Take accidents per 1000 km of track. It is 1.7 in India and 2.56 for Europe. Take accidents per billion passenger kms. It is 0.186 in India and 2.14 in Europe. Take level crossing (yes, level crossings!) accidents per 1000 level crossings. It is 2.23 in India and 4.73 in Europe. Take fatalities per billion passenger kms. It is 0.24 in India and 1.033 in Europe. Sure, these are all European numbers and some countries in Europe perform far better than India (and some perform worse).

Accidents can be of different types—collisions, derailments, level crossing accidents, fires in trains etc. What’s noticeable is the sharp drop in number of accidents due to collisions. The real worry is unmanned level crossings and there are still 11,563 of these. There are various reasons why progress on eliminating these has been tardy. One reason is financial. IR needs around Rs 40,000 crores to eliminate these, assuming IR bears the costs.

There are other issues connected with clearances from state governments. Hence, there are two reasons why visibility is still important for the driver. First, there are level crossings, manned and unmanned. Second, unlike developed countries, railway tracks aren’t separated from everything else. You never know what’s going to turn up on the track. We have had a few instances of animals straying onto airports. But otherwise, neither of these applies to aircraft.

Without getting too much into technical nitty-gritty, I need to mention absolute block and automatic block. A block is a segment of a long section, between 15 and 20 km long. The idea is that only a single train should be in one block at the same time, eliminating the danger of collisions. A train cannot proceed into a block until it has been cleared.

A better idea is automatic block, where a block is sub-divided into further fragments, with signals in-between. Each of these will be between 1 and 2 km long. This is the idea behind automatic signaling and this allows more than one train to be in the same block at the same time. While automatic signaling improves efficiency, do realize that it works better when all trains have similar speeds, not when there is mixed traffic.

Having said this, largely because of financial constraints, IR’s switch to automatic signaling has been running way behind schedule. I will give you a slightly dated figure. Out of the double-line broad-gauge network, only about 10% has been covered through automatic signaling.

To get back to fog conditions, in an automatic block, the maximum speed of a train is restricted to 30 km/hour, because there is another train on that block. In an absolute block system, the maximum speed of a train is restricted to 60 km/hour, because there is no other train on that block. Automatic signaling only helps to prevent collisions between trains.

Beyond automatic signaling, there is the idea of cab signaling. This is more comprehensive and allows all kinds of information (including about the track) to be conveyed to the driver. This can replace visual signals and will obviously be more expensive. There are different types of gadgets that can be used (along the track and overhead) to convey information to the driver.

It’s not that IR hasn’t experimented with these. However, some of these gadgets and wires are made of copper and they are stolen for the value of the copper. The bottom line is that automatic signaling and cab signaling can reduce accidents that are in the nature of collisions and derailments. They don’t help when other things wander onto the track and there are level crossings, manned or otherwise.

Other than the driver being able to see, danger signals need to be conveyed by station masters and others to the driver. That’s the reason detonators are used and crackers are burst during fog conditions. In some of the more modern expansions that are being contemplated, there will be a complete segregation of railway tracks and no level crossings. If and when those materialize, there will be no disruptions from fogs. But until then, we are stuck with fog.