Why India lags behind in rail safety – and where it goes from here

It’s been a week since the east Indian state of Odisha witnessed one of the worst rail accidents in the nation’s history. Rescue crews have gone home and train services have resumed, but the country is still reeling. 

As the shock wears off, attention has shifted to safety standards in the state-run Indian Railways, which ferries millions of people every day. Many opposition leaders have called for the resignation of India’s railways minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The accident is also humbling for the much-touted rail modernization drive by the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In recent years, the government has built high-altitude bridges, inaugurated state-of-the-art stations, and even announced India’s first bullet train. But Alok Kumar Verma, who retired from the Indian Railways Service of Engineers in 2016, calls these projects “sheer propaganda.” In reality, he says, the railway network is being neglected, with disastrous consequences.

What went wrong in Odisha?

Last Friday, near Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha’s Balasore district, the Coromandel Express passenger train was routed onto the wrong track, causing it to collide with a parked freight train instead of passing it safely. The Coromandel Express hit the freight, which was carrying a heavy payload of iron ore, at 80 mph. The impact derailed many of the express train’s coaches, which then careened onto an adjacent line, hitting another passenger train that was heading in the opposite direction. 

The three-train pile-up killed nearly 300 people and injured about a thousand. Many victims’ bodies were damaged beyond recognition, and hospitals resorted to DNA tests to help relatives identify loved ones. 

Mr. Vaishnaw has said that “a change in the electronic interlocking system” used to guide train movement caused the accident, adding that details would be revealed only after a full investigation by the commissioner of railway safety. It’s not clear whether the accident resulted from human error, technical glitch, or sabotage. What is clear is that this is India’s most severe rail accident since two trains collided near Agra in 1995. 

Since then, India has improved rail safety. In 2020-21, there were 22 serious accidents, down from 840 in 1970-71. Yet, in 2021, more than 16,000 people died in railway accidents. Globally, India still “ranks very low” when it comes to rail safety, says Mr. Verma, adding that it’s comparable to lesser-developed countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo or Nigeria. 

Why does India have such a poor track record on rail safety?

According to Mr. Verma, the root cause is congestion. Ideally, tracks should be running at 70% capacity to factor in maintenance, he explains, but on some of the country’s busiest routes, they’re operating well beyond capacity. 

Running too many trains eats into the maintenance time, compromising safety. “We don’t have the line capacity; our routes are highly choked,” he says. “This is a very alarming and worrying situation.”

Another issue is overcrowding. Samir Zaveri, a rail safety activist in Mumbai, notes that general, non-air-conditioned coaches are often well over capacity, and it’s not uncommon for people to ride in train bathrooms. When there is an accident, crowded carriages mean more casualties. 

Still, rail accidents of Friday’s magnitude are rare, in India and elsewhere. The last one was in 2002 in Tanzania, in which 281 people died. India’s deadliest rail disaster happened in 1981, when a train fell into a river in the eastern state of Bihar, killing an estimated 750 passengers.

Yet Mr. Zaveri, who lost both his legs in a rail accident more than three decades ago, says all these accidents, regardless of size, stem from lax attitudes toward safety. In Mumbai, where he lives, deaths occur every day on the crowded suburban rail network. 

“But nobody bothers about it,” he says. “There is no value for human life in India.”

How can India build safer railways?

India is already pouring money into revamping its railways – capital expenditure last financial year was around $23 billion. But experts say leaders have prioritized flashy projects over systemwide improvements. 

India has recently flagged off, for example, 18 new semi-high-speed trains that can go up to 110 mph. But due to poor track conditions, these trains are actually running at much lesser speeds. Mr. Zaveri compares it to driving a luxury car on a bad road. “What is the use?” he says.

When it comes to modernizing India’s infrastructure, “safety should be part of the culture,” says Subodh Jain, a former member of the Railway Board’s engineering department. He says that, whatever the investigation finds, the Odisha tragedy was at least in part due to a lack of vigilance. “Behind each such major accident, there must have been 300 incidences where you compromised with the safety rules and were able to get away with it,” he says. 

Mr. Verma agrees. “There has to be accountability,” he says.

Instead of focusing on adding new trains, Mr. Verma wants the Indian Railways to upgrade existing track networks to remove bottlenecks, and also build new routes to reduce congestion. In Mumbai, Mr. Zaveri has lobbied for emergency medical assistance at every station so that victims can get help immediately. 

Mr. Verma laments that the railway has been left behind even as airports and highways in India see explosive growth. For long journeys, the rail system is the only affordable option for millions of Indians, especially poor migrant workers like many of those who died in Friday’s accident. “It is the lifeline of the nation,” says Mr. Verma.