Indian Railways Junction

In five months, Indian Railways removes all unmanned crossings on major routes
In the five months since 13 schoolchildren were killed in April when a train rammed into a school van at an unmanned railway crossing near Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, the Indian Railways has managed to either man or remove all level crossings in major routes across the country, thereby ridding itself of potential death traps for road users in its network.

After the Kushinagar accident, which triggered a political uproar as it occurred during the Karnataka assembly election campaign, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and the Railway Board had advanced the deadline to eliminate all unmanned level crossings — either by manning or removal — by September this year.

As per records, only around 600 unmanned level crossings will be left by the end of this month. Incidentally, all routes where trains have a permissible speed of up to 130 km per hour, are now free of unmanned level crossings. They have either been removed by making subways for vehicles or manned by engaging ex-servicemen or closed.

As on April this year, there were 3,470 unmanned level crossings across the Indian Railways network. Most of them were, however, in low-traffic lines and where trains are allowed much lower maximum speeds. Over 1,300 of them now stand eliminated by way of manning or removal. The ones which remain see very little traffic everyday and will be removed soon, officials said.

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Thirteen children were killed in Kushinagar in April. (File)
Owing to the current drive, Guwahati-based Northeast Frontier Railway has become completely free of unmanned level crossings, joining others like Central, Eastern, South East Central and West Central, which had attained this feat last year.

Level crossings have often marred the safety record of the Indian Railways. Even though trains have the right of way at level crossings, mishaps at such locations involving road users have been a perpetual source of concern for the national transporter, which has even awarded compensation to victims on compassionate grounds in many cases. Railways has even adopted a policy of not constructing any new level crossings in its new projects.

Since 2007-08, 1,272 people have died in accidents at unmanned level crossings, the highest being in 2011-12, when 204 were killed. This year there have been 16 deaths at unmanned level crossings, 13 of them at the Kushinagar accident.
In five months, Indian Railways removes all unmanned crossings on major routes
 
India's first railway station inside tunnel to come up in Himachal Pradesh
For the first time in India, a railway station will be built inside a tunnel at a height of 3,000 metres, on the strategic Bilaspur-Manali-Leh line close to the Sino-India border, a senior official told PTI.

While many metro stations in Delhi and other cities are inside tunnels, once completed, the Keylong station in Himachal Pradesh will be the first on the railway network to be inside a tunnel.

Keylong is the administrative centre of Lahaul and Spiti district, 26 km north of Manali and 120 km from the Indo-Tibetan border.

"The Keylong station, in the project, will be inside the tunnel according to the first phase of the location survey. This will be the first such railway station in the country. As and when the final surveys are completed, there could be many such stations on the route," D R Gupta, chief engineer construction, Northern Railway, told PTI.
The station will be at a height of around 3,000 metres and will be inside a 27-km-long tunnel.

The line once completed will connect all important locations between Bilaspur and Leh like Sundernagar, Mandi, Manali, Keylong, Koksar, Darcha, Upshi and Karu and other towns of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. It is important because of its proximity to the Sino-India border and can facilitate in movement of goods and personnel to the frontier areas.

The project will include 74 tunnels, 124 major bridges and 396 minor bridges, according to the first phase of the survey.

Once finished, the line will halve the duration taken to cover the distance between Delhi and Leh, from 40 hours to 20 hours," said Vishwesh Chaube, general manager, Northern Railway.

The final location survey is expected to be completed in 30 months, after which a detailed project report will be finalised.
India's first railway station inside tunnel to come up in Himachal Pradesh
 
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CLW today produced 1st Engine with aerodynamic & ergonomic design & 200 kmph speed potential. This WAP-5 loco is energy efficient & stable for high speed operation. It will be utilized to haul the prestigious trains like Rajdhani Express, Gatiman Exp. and Shatabdi Exp.

DqSCly0UcAI5B9j.jpg
 
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Ashwin said:
CLW today produced 1st Engine with aerodynamic & ergonomic design & 200 kmph speed potential. This WAP-5 loco is energy efficient & stable for high speed operation. It will be utilized to haul the prestigious trains like Rajdhani Express, Gatiman Exp. and Shatabdi Exp.

DqSCly0UcAI5B9j.jpg
Click to expand...

Looks weird.
 
India's high-speed dream to see a new testing track in Rajasthan

Late October, when India’s first engine-less and the country’s fastest train — Train 18 —was rolled out for trial run, the question of whether the Indian tracks are safe for such high-speed trial runs was raised by many.
Now, the Indian Railways plans to test induction of new technology not on busy railway tracks but a dedicated testing track. The national transporter is set to come up with an elliptical 40-km track between Jaipur and Phulera at an investment of around Rs 4 billion. With this, India will enter a league of countries including the United States, Germany, China and Australia that have dedicated tracks for train trials.
“This will be an all-weather track and will be like a laboratory for the railways. Using this, it will be possible to undertake numerous test and trials of new rolling stocks and its components, new railway track technologies, technologies related to railway bridges and geotechnical field,” said an official in know of the development.
In the first phase, a 25-km track will be constructed — a straight track of about 20 km and rest will be a curved track of radius 1750 m and 875 m. Another official said the test track will come up near a salt-siding in the region and will have all the specifications of a normal track including bridges, curves and even speed restrictions at certain areas. At present, the railways is conducting tests of all its locomotives, wagons and equipment on commercial railway tracks.

Research Designs and Standards Organization (RDSO), the research wing of railways, had come out with a global bid for assigning consultancy to set up dedicated tracks in September. RDSO may entrust the consultant to set up and operate these tracks for some time, as India does not have any expertise in the area.
“Safety was not an issue as tracks used to be cordoned off for such trials. The line capacity and availability of time was an even severe issue as number of trains has gone up over the years. Exclusive tracks will be more useful as it will bring in reliability in terms of time, more than safety,” said V N Mathur, former member (traffic), Railway Board. Mathur added that since Rajdhanis in the 1960s and Gatimaan recently, trains clocking 140 kmph was never a realistic possibility on the Indian tracks because of traffic. Now, the national transporter is planning to come out with semi-high speed routes where trains can clock an average speed of 160-200 kmph, so dedicated testing is required.
The Railways had faced trouble earlier for trial runs on commercial tracks. In August 2016, soon after the Indian Railways had three successful trial runs of Spanish-made train Talgo on an Indian track, it was hauled up by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS). CRS highlighted the safety threats in running a train at a speed of 180 kmph in the high traffic routes of Delhi-Mumbai, Mathura-Palwal and Bareilly-Moradabad. CRS deals with matters of safety of rail travel and train operations.
The official added the facility would also be used by the Railways to conduct a number of tests — such as coupler force trials, oscillation trials and emergency braking distance trials — which are necessary for safety of passengers and goods.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: _Anonymous_ and R!cK
Ashwin said:
India's high-speed dream to see a new testing track in Rajasthan

Late October, when India’s first engine-less and the country’s fastest train — Train 18 —was rolled out for trial run, the question of whether the Indian tracks are safe for such high-speed trial runs was raised by many.
Now, the Indian Railways plans to test induction of new technology not on busy railway tracks but a dedicated testing track. The national transporter is set to come up with an elliptical 40-km track between Jaipur and Phulera at an investment of around Rs 4 billion. With this, India will enter a league of countries including the United States, Germany, China and Australia that have dedicated tracks for train trials.
“This will be an all-weather track and will be like a laboratory for the railways. Using this, it will be possible to undertake numerous test and trials of new rolling stocks and its components, new railway track technologies, technologies related to railway bridges and geotechnical field,” said an official in know of the development.
In the first phase, a 25-km track will be constructed — a straight track of about 20 km and rest will be a curved track of radius 1750 m and 875 m. Another official said the test track will come up near a salt-siding in the region and will have all the specifications of a normal track including bridges, curves and even speed restrictions at certain areas. At present, the railways is conducting tests of all its locomotives, wagons and equipment on commercial railway tracks.

Research Designs and Standards Organization (RDSO), the research wing of railways, had come out with a global bid for assigning consultancy to set up dedicated tracks in September. RDSO may entrust the consultant to set up and operate these tracks for some time, as India does not have any expertise in the area.
“Safety was not an issue as tracks used to be cordoned off for such trials. The line capacity and availability of time was an even severe issue as number of trains has gone up over the years. Exclusive tracks will be more useful as it will bring in reliability in terms of time, more than safety,” said V N Mathur, former member (traffic), Railway Board. Mathur added that since Rajdhanis in the 1960s and Gatimaan recently, trains clocking 140 kmph was never a realistic possibility on the Indian tracks because of traffic. Now, the national transporter is planning to come out with semi-high speed routes where trains can clock an average speed of 160-200 kmph, so dedicated testing is required.
The Railways had faced trouble earlier for trial runs on commercial tracks. In August 2016, soon after the Indian Railways had three successful trial runs of Spanish-made train Talgo on an Indian track, it was hauled up by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS). CRS highlighted the safety threats in running a train at a speed of 180 kmph in the high traffic routes of Delhi-Mumbai, Mathura-Palwal and Bareilly-Moradabad. CRS deals with matters of safety of rail travel and train operations.
The official added the facility would also be used by the Railways to conduct a number of tests — such as coupler force trials, oscillation trials and emergency braking distance trials — which are necessary for safety of passengers and goods.
Click to expand...

What's happening with the Talgo trials?
 
Ironhide said:
Talgo Plans shelved, Train 18 and Train 20 will be the modern trains for Indian Railways, ICF developed these in 18 months time and the cost will be 50 per cent less than Talgo.
Click to expand...
Why did IR go in for Talgo trials then? Was it some sort of a comparative study IR indulged in? Does anyone have an insight into this?
 
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