Question : Railway Safety and Operations

(a) whether the Railways are aware that several trains are cancelled and most of the trains run extremely late in foggy weather;

(b) if so, the details thereof along with the remedial action taken in this regard;

(c) whether the Railways propose to separate the roles of regulator, operator and investigator by bringing changes in Railway Safety Act;

(d) if so, the time by which it is likely to be made by when along with the details thereof;

(e)whether the Railways propose to bring the commission of Railway Safety under the Ministry of Railways; and

(f) if so, by when and if not, the reasons therefor along with the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

(a) &(b) Yes, Madam. The occurrence of fog that engulfs the Northern, North Central, Eastern, North Eastern, Northeast Frontier, North Western and West Central Railways during December-February period leads to reduced mobility of coaching and freight trains owing to severely impaired visibility faced by the drivers and also due to safety protocol put in place in the fog affected areas. Fog not only leads to delay in trains but also leads to severe reduction in line capacity of the affected section, particularly on certain trunk routes that have heavy rail traffic and are already having severe line capacity constraints. Therefore, Railways cancel trains during foggy weather on busy routes to allow adequate spacing between successive trains and also to ensure safety of passengers.
During 2014-2015 foggy weather, 27 pairs of Mail/Express trains were cancelled from 31.12.2014 to 15.02.2015. All these trains were restored with effect from 16.02.2015, except 14309/14310 (Ujjain-Dehradun) and 14265/14266 (Varanasi-Dehradun) which were restored from 21/22.02.2015.
The following steps are taken during fog for running trains on time:
(i) Monitoring of running of trains at Board, Zonal and Divisional levels, on an almost real time basis through the Integrated Coaching Management System.
(ii) Providing scratch rakes to obviate rescheduling of trains owing to late arrival of link rakes due to fog.
(iii) Improving Maintenance practices so that trains running late can be returned from platform after the mandatory safety and cleanliness inspections.
(c) to (f) High Level Safety Review Committee (Kakodar Committee) has recommended that Railway Safety Authority should be set up as a statutory body independent of Railway Board under the Government. Railway Safety Authority (RSA) would have broad functions of safety regulation, accident investigation and safety management. The Committee also recommended that the institution of Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) should be merged with the RSA.
The recommendation of the Kakodar Committee are under examination in the Ministry of Railways.
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