MY CAMS OPINION - 2 (WHY INDIAN RAILWAYS IS SLOW?)

HELLO FRIENDS!

This is Shikhar Singh back with another ‘my cams opinion’ post which is again the information’s and facts based on my opinions and observations. Today, I am writing my post on one of my important and favorite topic which is the biggest posing challenge for the Indian Railways. So, this post would discuss about the topic ‘WHY INDIAN TRAINS ARE SLOW?’.

As, Indian Railways becomes one of the biggest networks among all the countries and daily service over millions of passengers and freight trains. But, the major problem which almost all the trains have to face, whether it is passenger trains or freight trains, is its late running which almost causes huge losses and wastes of lot of time. It happens very less that the train reaches its destination and cover its destination during the designated time.

As result of which most of the passengers prefers road journey than rail journey and Railways faces a great exploitation in its freight transportation and we can see a big decrement in the revenue during the last 30 years, and largely in goods transportation which decreases from 80% in year 1959 to 34% in year 2016. That’s why Railways are making a lot of backup to cover its losses. So, this post will cover the major reasons that causes this late running of trains according to my opinions in brief:

1.THE TRACKS- FOUNDATION AND ESTABLISHMENT

The tracks used in Indian Railways are still of outdated old technologies. Their foundation, sleepers, steel rails are made up of old design. This prevents them to gain high speeds and various speed limits prohibit them to run at designated speeds.

The track laying process includes the bare land over which crushed stones or ‘ballast’ are laid to keep them at heights. Next wooden or concrete sleepers were laid and covered them with stones. Finally, the steel rails were laid at large distances and fixed with slider to allow the expansion and contraction. Thus, the whole arrangement is not fixed to grounds.

The major function is of ballast stones which absorbs the load and vibrations when heavy trains passes over it. Moreover, it fixes the tracks and provides the sufficient friction that prevents derailment even at high speeds.

 So, the ballast stones and concrete sleepers are very important for tracks. The design of sleepers should be curved not straight. By being curved, they can be more accumulated inside the stones making it rigidly fixed and it can distribute its vibrations over a large area. This makes the train to pass even at high speeds. One can also observe that the main line has more distributed stones that loop lines. Thus, more number of stones and more coverage area of sleepers gives train sufficient power to run at high speeds.

CURVED CONCRETE SLEEPERS

2. PAPERWORK AND TOKEN EXCHANGE SERVICE

This also becomes a major factor in late running of the trains. The train driver and guard of the particular train has to keep the records and paperwork of whole journey of train. This include the arrival and departure time from any station, the timings of signal crossing, special permissions from station master or bigger authority for further moving of train etc. This wastes a lot of time and eventually increases the time of journey as some of the tedious paperwork takes a lot of time.

Another reason on this is the token exchange process. There are some routes where LED signals are still not installed and manual signals were used which makes them to use token system. In this system, the driver receives the circular token from one station master which allows to move next station where it drops the existing token and takes new token. The station master put this signal in particular box which gives new token and ask peon to return the token. This mostly takes 20 min which delays the train lot.

3. SHUNTING AND PREFERENCE PROCESS

The shunting includes the changing of locomotive, reversing of locomotive and separating a section of link trains which goes to other destination. This shunting process positions the train at station for a long time in un-serviced conditions which usually takes 45 minutes to one hour. As anything is not already set, it wastes a lot of time in setting them.

Second major factor is the preference that Indian Railways give to some trains. For example, if due to some reasons all the trains of that particular route are disturbed, the Rajdhanis and other premium train are allowed to move first and cover its journey and lastly the mail trains are allowed to move. This creates a huge stopping time of particular mail trains which delays them a lot. Even some destinies’ trains are signalled to move first than other. For example, if a Delhi train and Jammu train are running late and standing at same platform, it allows the Delhi train to move first and stops other train. In this way, some preference causes delay of train.

4. THE CHASY DESIGN OF LOCOMOTIVE AND COACHES

The chassy design of locomotives and coaches not allow them to hauls at high speed. The absence of aerodynamic design and old-fashioned engines of locomotive with old coaches causes a major factor. The coaches are not manufactured in single system but with individual units that combines together. This gives instability and high vibration to trains which prevents them attain greater speed.

5. THE USE OF ICF COACHES OVER LHB COACHES

As said earlier and discussed in earlier post, the LHB coaches have a lot of advantages over ICF coaches and this happens mainly due to their frame and bogie structure. They can easily run at high speed and having larger stability. But still over 80% of the coaches are ICF coaches used in Railways. it is known that LHB are costlier than ICF coaches but still if railways make a huge investment they can easily prevents this delay and make services better and secured.

6. LARGE NUMBER OF SERVICED TRAIN

This is the last and most important reasons for big delays in Railways. As the railways hold the position of largest rail network among the countries but unable to manage them effectively. Over 3 times more trains are serviced in North division than South division. As we know that North block has greater population than south block and becomes the reason of large number of trains.

 The heavy traffic over North block makes every train to delay where next station is not empty, greater preference to premium trains, small yards at important station with large number of train to hold. Thus, in this network if any delay occurs in one train, the delay will affect the other trains too and, in this way, whole network is affected.        

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TEXTS: THE WHOLE CONTENT IS BASED ON MY OPINIONS AND VIEWS, THE CONTENT WAS NOT COPIED OR STUDIED FROM ANYWHERE.
IMAGES: GOOGLE IMAGES