Indian rail

ozbob · July 19, 2017, 06:09:51 AM

https://twitter.com/Robert_Dow/status/887383760366260224

ozbob · August 20, 2017, 07:39:41 AM

https://twitter.com/GuardianAus/status/899006644620636161

ozbob · September 11, 2017, 12:47:31 PM

https://twitter.com/ccmsrly/status/907049465684439040

ozbob · September 21, 2017, 15:57:10 PM

https://twitter.com/chartideas6/status/910430203133911041

ozbob · April 08, 2018, 18:03:16 PM

https://twitter.com/rajtoday/status/982887514070544384

ozbob · April 09, 2018, 13:22:30 PM

The Guardian --> Indian runaway train takes 1,000 passengers on engineless journey

QuoteTwenty two carriages roll out of control for seven miles in Odisha state before being stopped by rocks placed on track

India's railway ministry said a "ghastly" accident had narrowly been avoided after 22 passenger carriages carrying about 1,000 people became detached from a train engine and sped backwards for miles before being stopped.

The runaway carriages rolled for seven miles in the north-eastern state of Odisha before being brought to a shuddering halt by rocks placed on the tracks by railway staff.

A spokesman for the railway ministry's eastern division said on Sunday that none of about 1,000 passengers had been injured in the incident on Saturday night.

Seven railway employees who were reported not to have followed proper procedures were suspended and an investigation was opened into how the carriages became separated during the journey from the western state of Gujarat to Odisha, said JP Mishra, a spokesman.

Authorities believe that brakes normally applied when carriages are detached or attached to an engine were either incorrectly used or overlooked altogether.

"Something ghastly could have happened and it was averted by alert staff. Safety cannot be compromised," Mishra told AFP. He said more heads were likely to roll, adding: "Everybody in the railways [ministry] is aghast and shocked."

Mobile footage posted on social media showed the carriages speeding past a railway platform as helpless onlookers screamed and yelled at passengers to pull the train's emergency brake.

More than 22 million passengers commute daily on about 9,000 trains across India.

The incident is the latest to beset the creaking rail network, which dates to the colonial era. Last November 13 coaches of an express train derailed in northern India, killing three people and leaving nine injured. A year before, 146 people died in a similar disaster.

A 2012 government report said that almost 15,000 people were killed in various ways every year on India's railways and described the loss of life as an annual "massacre".

Gazza · April 11, 2018, 07:13:41 AM

Ive been meaning to post my Observations from rail in India from my visit in December (Currently writing this aboard RE1 between Colonge and Essen)

-The metro in Delhi could have been in Singapore, if it weren't for slightly more shoddy construction, but overall very clean. Everyone who enters gets frisked and goes through a metal detector....Not sure how it goes in peak.

Theres also a limited stops metro from the Airport to central delhi, also very good and modern.

-In Mumbai I used the train to get to Khopoli (2hrs away).... Suburban trains and stations are much more 3rd world, but they do have RO drinking water and toilets that smell strongly of pissss.

-The trains look old, but inspection of the plates reveals they are often as new as the mid 2000s

-First class is really just a caged off bit with padded vinyl seats (Like in a K set) and other classes have benches. There's also womens carriages, and one with no seats you can take your cart of vegetables in etc.

-The doors never Shut. What I noticed is that they aren't really so crowded that people are forced out the doors..... rather people seem to like hanging out the side regardless, even when it's quiet.

-The city is covered well with 3 North South commuter lines for the peninsula shape of the city.....The west, central and north railways. Simple stopping patterns, a slow all stops service and a fast service that stops one in 5.

-Trains had pids, with stations and announcements in both English and Marathi.

-I also used the cross town metro which is about 10km north of CST (And expansion continues with a new 100 percent underground line)
Similar standards to the Delhi one.