On Tuesday morning, 18 coaches of the Mumbai-Howrah Mail derailed in Jharkhand’s Seraikela-Kharsawan district.
The incident killed two people and injured at least 20 others.
Train derailments, signal failures, collisions, and other accidents, resulting in deaths, injuries and enormous losses of public property, have dominated headlines recently.
The government is investing lakhs and crores of rupees in the railways to replace or repair outdated railroads, install new trains, and remove thousands of unattended railroad crossings. However, it is still a work in progress.
In the first half of 2024, seven major accidents occurred on the Indian Railways, including four derailments.
The growing number of such unfortunate train incidents has raised serious concerns about railway safety and the need for stringent measures to prevent such tragedies.
Here are some of the major train accidents that occurred this year.
July: Mumbai-Howrah Mail derailment
The accident occurred at 3.45 am near Badabamboo, around 80 kilometres from Jamshedpur, under the Chakradharpur Division of South East Railway, they said.
“Eighteen coaches of the Mumbai-Howrah Mail derailed near Badabamboo. Two passengers were killed and 20 were injured in the accident. The injured were provided medical aid in Badabamboo. They are now being taken to Chakradharpur for better treatment,” a senior SER official told PTI.
The rescue operation is on, he said.
The train accident was reported from Potobeda in the Kharsawan block of Seraikela-Kharsawan district, a local administration official said.
“The Mumbai-Howrah Mail and a freight train are involved in the accident. The assessment of injured people is underway,” he added.
July: Goods train derailment
A goods train derailed in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar in the early hours of Monday, July 29.
The incident took place at 1.35 am in the railway yard at Mancheswar station, according to the East Coast Railway (ECoR).
There was no loss of life or damage to properties due to the derailment, it added.
Because of the derailment, two trains were cancelled and six trains were rescheduled, while the Puri-Rourkela Express was short-terminated in both directions.
July: Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express derailed
On July 18 afternoon, several coaches of the
Chandigarh-Dibrugarh Express derailed between Motiganj and Jhulahi railway stations in the Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, killing at least four people and injuring about 30 others.
The train was heading towards Dibrugarh. Out of the 21 derailed coaches, five AC coaches were derailed a few kilometres before the Jhulahi railway station.
Following the incident, a contingent of army jawans was sent to the spot to assist local administration in relief and rescue operations.
According to NDTV, the loco pilot of the train claimed to have heard a loud explosion just before the collision. The Central government ordered a high-level probe into the incident.
July: Hazarduari Express collision
A passenger train collided with two cars at Khardah Railway Station in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas on July 14 night, narrowly escaping a major accident.
The incident occurred at around 8:40 pm when the Hazarduari Express was approaching Khardah station on line number four of the railway. The railway gateman started to close it as the train approached. Two private cars, however, quickly approached and were caught on the rails in between the gates despite the collapsing gate, as per Times Now.
Fortunately, only minor injuries were sustained by the drivers of the two heavily damaged cars in the crash.
The locomotive was inspected, causing a 40-minute delay in train services before they were able to continue.
The railway police and Khardah police arrived at the location.
June: Kanchanjunga Express collision
On June 17, a goods train collided with the Kanchenjunga Express between Rangapani and Chattar Hat stations in West Bengal.
At least 10 persons, including the loco pilot of the Amingaon (Assam)-Jharsuguda (Odisha) goods train, and the train manager of the express train were killed and nearly 50 others were injured.
The accident happened in the Darjeeling district’s Siliguri subdivision at around 8.45 in the morning. The train struck the other at 40 kilometres per hour.
A freight train struck the Kanchanjunga Express from behind when it was going from Agartala, Tripura, to Sealdah, Kolkata, according to Sabyasachi De, the Northeast Frontier Railway’s (NFR) chief public relations officer.
As the freight train approached the Kanchenjunga Express, it was travelling at 78 kilometres per hour. The loco pilot tried to apply the emergency brakes, but it was unable to stop the collision, according to the Indian Express, which cited a Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety (CCRS) probe report.
Some of the reasons given for the crash include an automatic signal failure, mistakes made at different levels of the operation management process, and the absence of vital safety equipment such a walkie-talkie with the loco pilot and train manager.
Also read: Kanchanjunga Express train accident: Could ‘Kavach’ have prevented the tragedy?
June: Goods train collision
Two loco pilots were injured on June 2 morning when a stationary goods train was hit from behind by another at the Sirhind railway station in Fatehgarh Sahib, according to PTI.
The collision caused the engine of one of them to flip over to another track and hit a passenger train.
There was no loss of life in the incident that took place near Madhopur in Sirhind.
March: Sabarmati-Agra Express derailment
Four coaches of the Sabarmati-Agra Superfast Express were derailed near the Ajmer station in Rajasthan on March 18 this year.
According to PTI, no casualties or injuries were caused by the incident, though the train’s speed at the time of the collision was 50 kilometres per hour.
According to a preliminary probe, the loco pilot overshot the red signal, after which it collided with two rear wagons of a freight train, which was passing through at an intersection/crossover.
The loco pilot too admitted in his submission that before entering the Madar station, he saw the first signal in double yellow position and second in single yellow. He further said that when he saw the third signal in the red position, he applied an emergency brake but by the time, the train collided with the rear end of the freight train.
The incident caused huge disruption to train operations in both up/down direction for several hours.
Similar tragedies last year
A horrifying triple train collision in Odisha on June 2, 2023, involving the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, and a cargo train, resulted in up to 290 fatalities and over 900 injuries. It is among the worst railway mishaps in the nation’s history.
Fourteen people were killed on October 29 in an Andhra Pradesh train collision involving the Visakhapatnam-Palasa and Visakhapatnam-Rayagada passenger trains. The tragedy happened because one of the passenger trains overshot a signal, according to the officials.
Six coaches of the Anand Vihar Terminal-Kamakhya Junction North East Express derailed on October 11, in the vicinity of the Raghunathpur Railway Station in Buzar, Bihar. The incident resulted in four fatalities and 70 injuries.
A fire broke out in the Lucknow-Rameshwaram Bharat Gaurav train, which halted close to the Madurai junction at approximately 5.15 am on August 25, leaving over nine passengers dead and 20 more injured. According to the preliminary investigation, the passengers were cooking in the coach after smuggling a gas cylinder onto the train when the fire broke out, according to India TV.
Also read: How common are train accidents in India? Why do they keep happening?
Demands for accountability
In a joint statement, eleven railway groups and central trade unions have demanded that the central government, its ministers, and other high-ranking officials take responsibility for the numerous preventable tragedies that have occurred on Indian Railways, according to a report by The Wire.
The organisations have called on the government to put an end to the “violation of safety norms and procedures,” and pointed out major shortcomings that might be to blame for the incidents.
They have also presented instances of the deadly human cost of overwork, urging the government to fill all vacant safety category jobs in Indian Railways.
The organisations who signed the statement are the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), the All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA), the All India Pointsmen Association (AIPMA), the All India Station Masters Association (AISMA), the All India Railway Track Maintainers Union (AIRTU), the All India Trade Union Congress(AITUC), the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), the Indian Railway Loco Runningmen’s Organisation (IRLRO), Indian Railway Signal and Telecom Maintainers Union (IRS & TMU), the Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC), and the Labour Progressive Front(LPF).
With inputs from agencies
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Yet another train derailment: How 2024 has been disastrous for the Indian Railways so far
