Train Derailments On The Rise Despite Ongoing Track Renewal Work

Train derailments are on the rise despite the massive track renewal work being carried out expeditiously to strengthen the rail lines across the country. The ongoing track repairing and maintenance work have also affected the train running status along  with  a  sliding punctuality rate.
 
According to the punctuality data,  the North Central zone is at the lowest with 52.72 per cent punctuality rate during August 6-12, 2018, followed by  the  South East Central and  the  Northern zone with 61.34 per cent and 61.45 per cent, respectively.  Lucknow division in the Northern zone and Allahabad division in  the  North Central  zone  are at  the  bottom  of the punctuality performance with 35.54 per cent and 47.57 per cent, respectively. Punctuality rates ranging between 80 to 90 per cent is considered  okay given the congestion in the  main trunk routes.  Moradabad division in  the  Northern zone and Howrah division in  the  Eastern zone have also not fared well with 53.17 per cent and 56 per cent punctuality rate, respectively, while  the  Delhi division is also well below the 80 per cent mark at 77.84 per cent.

The ongoing track strengthening work has caused speed restrictions at many routes affecting the train schedules, but  the railways  are  going  on  full steam to replace all the  aging assets with new ones. Ironically, even though  the aim of the track renewal is to ensure safe train journey by preventing derailments, the railways have witnessed more derailments in the recent past.    

There were 20 cases of derailment between April 1, 2017, and August 16, 2017, while the train derailments have gone up to 22 for the corresponding period this year - April 1 to August 16, 2018, according to railways data.
 
Since derailments are caused due to track defects including weld failure and rail fractures, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal after taking over the responsibility from Suresh Prabhu has put special emphasis on strengthening tracks by replacing the aging rails with new ones.  However, the increase in derailments has raised questions on the quality of the track repairing work.
  
Acknowledging the increased number of derailments, a senior official said the  causes for  the  derailments are being examined to take preventive measures. All  the  same,  there will be no let up on ongoing track strengthening work  the  official  said. In fact, laying new lines is not the first priority now,  as it has been replaced by track renewal to prevent derailments.
  
On  the  punctuality issue, he said "We have to regulate the train movement on a particular route to facilitate track repair which causes delay. But nevertheless, it is for passenger safety so we have to continue with it."
 
There are speed restrictions at many places due to the ongoing track maintenance work  which  is  affecting the punctuality rate, said the official, adding many rail blocks are made to make train rides safer.

However, the official added the derailments have not caused any casualty or serious injuries to passengers as most of these incidents have happened near stations when train speed is slow.  

Besides, track renewal, the  railways  are  also acquiring vehicular ultrasonic flaw detection (USFD) system to detect track defects at  a faster pace.  It can detect the flaws in primary stage and all developed countries use  this system to avoid the human element in detecting cracks on rails. Currently, it is detected manually which takes longer time to complete a particular route.