Late-running trains sink ranks of Southern Railway divisions
The errant officers get away by claiming that they had prioritized safety over punctuality
Punctuality Rate: Madurai 90.14%, Thiruchirappally 80.61%, Palakkad 75.86%, Chennai 72.11% & Salem 64.60%
Kochi: When it comes to punctuality, northern divisions of the Indian Railways top the chart. South India was represented by just Mysuru and Hubbali divisions in the top 10, while the Madurai division of the Southern Railway came 11th. Railway divisions serving Kerala fared horribly in the latest performance ranks. Only face-saver was the Palakkad division which came at the 32nd position. The Thiruvananthapuram division was 63rd, with only five other divisions performing worse.
The list is an indicator of the performance of Mail and Express trains in April. Only 45 of the 100 trains running in the Thiruvananthapuram division were able to meet their schedules. The underperformance is in stark contrast to the 68 percent punctuality rate in the Konkan division which has been struggling with single tracks. The Thiruvananthapuram division has 90 percent of its tracks double-lined.
Even the other divisions in the Southern Railway perform better than Thiruvananthapuram. Madurai has a punctuality rate of 90.14%, Thiruchirappally 80.61%, Palakkad 75.86%, Chennai 72.11% and Salem 64.60%.
Every time the passengers complain about delayed trains, the Thiruvananthapuram division justifies itself by claiming that the delays were caused by repair works across the divisions. The authorities’ claims have been nixed by the latest data put out by the railway board. The other divisions are able to run trains on time despite repair and maintenance works.
The operating and engineering sections of the Thiruvananthapuram division have been passing the instead of owning up for the delays and doing something about it. The engineering section points out that some divisions that handle thrice as many trains do a better job than the Thiruvananthapuram division. The operating section does little to take to task the officers responsible for the delays. The errant officers get away by claiming that they had prioritized safety over punctuality.
The operating section’s top brass is populated by officers who have secured their positions thanks to their influence in the Southern Railway headquarters in Chennai. Even the Railway Board is unable to appoint skilled officers to streamline the division.
The trains are delayed because of the officers’ insistence that trains could cross each other only at designated stations. The trains are not running as fast as they could on several stretches. The construction of tracks is so substandard that trains cannot be run above 50 kilometers per hour on average.
The division has done nothing to increase the speed limit on loop lines or to straighten the bends on the tracks. In the Palakkad division, the speed limit on loop lines has been raised to 30 kilometers per hour at most stations. The Thiruvananthapuram division clearly has other priorities.
Courtesy: onmanorama