Rail Safety: urgent need for strategic, operational solutions

Abstract

What is stopping the Indian Railways from adopting technological solutions in this day and age to ensure infrastructure and human errors don't cause fatal accidents?. Safety is a significant issue in the context of mobility and needs needs special attention both, at the strategic and operational levels. In a 'controlled' environment like rail transportation, if safety is compromised, it is not acceptable. There have been four major accidents involving passenger trains within the past one year, three of which resulted in fatalities. The two most recent ones happened on August 19th evening and August 23, in the early morning. There have been a string of many more accidents, which as per the Railways' statistics, have been dropping year-on-year on an annual basis. However, the nature of these accidents, caused by avoidable failures of infrastructure or human error is worrisome. What is of greater concern is the reaction of having heads roll and directing that responsibility be fixed by the ‘end of day’. This would fail to address the basic problems. Read more at: https://www.forbesindia.com/article/iim-bangalore/rail-safety-urgent-need-for-strategic-operational-solutions/48013/1