THE BURNING TRAINS

Trains Ablaze?

Being a retired officer of the Indian Railways, I feel thoroughly disturbed and depressed  to hear continuously about the  Fire Accidents in the running trains causing fatal  injuries and deaths to many of the innocent passengers. The recent train disaster by fire accident at NELLORE, clearly shows that the railways have not learned lessons from the previous such fire accidents in the trains. It seems no proper corrective actions have been taken to arrest or avoid such mishap in future. Repeated occurrences of “ Train on fire”  clearly indicate that the reason for such  accidents is due to  the inaction of the  railway staff responsible for the timely maintenance of the Electrical circuits and installations while the train arrives at stations.

I had the privilege to serve the Indian railways for 38 years including the Konkan railways from 1956 to 1994.During this period I have seen that the standard of maintenance of the running trains was very good particularly for the electrical installations as it is the critical system with specific attention to avoid “Short circuiting”. But now the situation is different.  During my journey by train after my retirement, I have not seen any maintenance staff attending the compartment in which I was traveling.  The train is to be attended at every important station to ensure that the electrical and water connections etc are in order, as per the schedule fixed by the railways. Overlooking the responsibility of the staff in their duty is also leading to such difficult situations. The Union activities in the railways have taken strong lead and they are overpowering the administrative orders resulting in the dereliction of duty of the staff in maintaining the “Electrical Nerves” of the trains. Disconnection or loose joints in the electrical line is bound to happen while on the run due to jerks and rolling of the bogies attached to the whole train.

Friendship does not mean that you overlook the offenses done by your colleagues or friends in discharging their duties for public safety. Timely interference and corrective measures must be taken to rectify the defects and timely action by the fellow workers. Unless the responsibility is directly fixed for “inaction” the railways cannot come out of such accidents killing innocent passengers on board.

I entreat the officers and Staff of the Indian railways to bestow their sincere efforts to avoid Fire Accidents and all other disruptions in the Train Services by enforcing the Standard of the Maintenance Schedule of the running trains by all at all levels.

Abraham Mangalath Philip