Fog, rain caused massive delay of trains

Hyderabad: An average of 98,329 hours was lost in the delay of trains of the Indian Railways in the last three months, from November to January, according to the Railway Ministry. In the month of January alone, there were 452 trains delayed per day on an average. Most of them were delayed due to fog and asset failures. Around 30 per cent trains were delayed in the entire Indian Railways.

The effect of fog on train delays is more in the Northern Railway zones than the Southern zones. Although, South Central Railways (SCR) is one of the top zones in maintaining punctuality, but the congestion at its major stations like Vijayawada and Secunderabad divisions has been contributing to the delay in trains, according to the SCR officials.

The other major external factors that contribute to train delays apart from internal factors are fog and rains, heavy road traffic at railway crossings gate, law and order problems, miscreant activities such as theft of railway assets, run over cases involving cattle and humans etc.

According to the railways, to avoid delay of trains in foggy weather and to enhance the level of safety, a modified automatic signalling system has been introduced in Northern Railway and North Central Railway, which restricts the number of trains to two between two stations during winter season.

In some of the zones with fog issues, there is a provision of Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system in selected sections. These systems have the facility of displaying movement authority in front of the Loco pilot in the cab, which helps them to run the train during the impaired visibility. The Railways is working on introducing it in all the problem oriented stations.