Keeping in account the problems faced by the passengers during the previous foggy seasons, Northern Railway has taken several steps for managing train operations during the upcoming winter fog season.
Ashutosh Gangal, General Manager of Northern Railway said that the railways will inform passengers through SMS on registered mobile about train running late status if the train is more than one hour late. “Among measures are taken including provision of opening of catering stalls on the platforms beyond the normal sale hours, deployment of additional ‘Railway Protection Force’ (RPF) personnel on the stations for crowd management and tackling security issues and cold weather patrolling of rail lines to timely detect rail fractures especially during the night hours,” he said.
Gangal said that the occurrence of fog especially in North India during the winter months is a common weather phenomenon. However, it has been experienced that in recent years, the pattern and occurrence span of fog in the sub-continent has undergone changes with several pockets of Western and Eastern regions of the country now also witnessing the troublesome weather effect, he said.
“The Fog often coupled with the human-activity induced smog drastically reduces visibility disrupting day to day life. It also causes repercussions on the Rail Transport system. The movement of freight and coaching trains is severely affected majorly due to poor discernbility experienced by the train drivers and the safety protocols that are put in place that includes speed restriction in the fog affected areas,” he added.
Gangal further said that as a result the trains reach their destinations late and have to be often rescheduled for the return journey or cancelled due to abnormal late running.
Speaking on the occasion, he also talked about various challenges and problems faced by railways and preparedness of Northern Railway for safe train operation such as rake imbalances due to abnormal late running of trains, crew shortage resulting out of longer duration of working hours due to slower mobility and path constraints, complete disorientation of time table, train berthing plans, maintenance slots at washing line complexes etc due to late arrival of trains, catering difficulties due to out of schedule running of trains and heavy crowding of waiting passengers on platforms at major terminals.
GPS based tracking systems developed as hand held trackers are to be provided to the line patrolling staff so that they can be in constant touch with the closest stations on either side to effectively report any untoward, he said.
“Besides other measures, the Loco Pilots are to be given special training to tackle low visibility issues. They will also be sensitized to apply their wisdom and sense of judgment on controlling the speed of the train keeping in view the prevailing conditions on the track at the time,” he said.