India’s Deadly Railway System: The Search for Safer Railroad Regulations

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 —

According to the High Level Safety Review Committee, 20 million people in India use the railway on a daily basis. Spanning 40,000 miles, the railroad acts a valuable connector of people, ideas, and commodities.  As the nation develops, politicians often use their power over the railroad to seek political favor.  They control all major decisions for the railroad such as introducing new trains and keeping railway fares constant.  For the average citizen, these measures may save them money in train fare, but costs them dearly in lives.

Recently, the government committee safety panel released shocking figures about railway crossings. According to the Washington Post, roughly 15,000 people die every year trying to cross India’s railway tracks.  That’s 40 people dying a day, often at unmanned stations, from train accidents that railway authorities refuse to cite as train crashes. Comparatively, roughly 30 people die a year from train accidents in the United States.

In especially crowded cities such as Mumbai, poor city and railroad planning exacerbates the problem.  As many as four or five tracks run parallel through the city, forcing people living in the slums to walk across the tracks to get to work and home.  As a result, Mumbai’s rail network causes 6,000 of the 15,000 deaths a year.

The safety panel recommends implementing new bridges and overpasses to combat this problem.  Committee members, such as scientist Anil Kakodkar, cite railway authorities’ “lax safety standards and poor management.” Perhaps better signage and increased avenues of transportation will make railroad crossings safer, for this country that has the fourth largest railway system in the world.

– A. Li