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Driving a train easier than
driving a car: official

Deepshikha Ghosh in New Delhi

An Indian official said Friday the railways have no immediate answers to pranksters getting into unmanned trains and driving off to potentially disastrous consequences.

"It is easier to drive a train than a car. If it is unmanned, then anybody can fiddle with the levers and get the train moving," a Railway Ministry official said.

His comments came a day after a teenager took control of an unmanned but empty train and drove it in the reverse mode for 119 km before it was derailed near Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh.

One person was killed and another severely injured in the freak incident. The train, speeding at 100-160 km/ph, had enough fuel to keep running for a few more hours.

Another official told IANS: "As per rules, a locomotive has to be manned 24 hours by a driver and a diesel assistant. That the driver left the train with the engine running is shocking."

An inquiry has been ordered into the incident and the train's driver has been suspended.

Railway officials recall a similar incident that happened less than 10 years back at Moradabad, also in Uttar Pradesh, when a train began moving on its own and travelled a long distance before it could be brought to a halt.

The official said: "We can spend money and provide a locking system, but then we run the risk of the drivers losing the key or some unauthorised person locking the engine from inside. Overkill has its price."

The problem arises because many drivers usually leave the engine running even when it is de-linked from the train. "I don't know about the rest of the world, but this is the practice in India. It is the driver's responsibility to observe precautions."

A locomotive has two brakes, which can be activated without much effort, and a throttle to move the train. If the engine is not de-linked from the train, anyone can release the brakes, which are just a few centimetres apart, and crank the throttle to get it moving.

Human errors account for 70 per cent of India's 400 train accidents a year, according to officials.

A Railway Safety Commission official said: "Though the accident figures have come down from 2,200 in 1960, the human error component remains the same."

India has the world's largest railway network spread over 60,000 km, with more than 14,000 trains carrying 13 million people daily.

Though the network has expanded in the last 50 years, safety and communication systems remain archaic. Indian Railways employs some 1.6 million people.

Indo-Asian News Service

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