Railways not to launch trains on saturated routes, to retrofit old coaches

New Delhi: A day after the tragic derailment of Indore-Patna Express near Kanpur, the Railways today decided not to run new trains on certain over-saturated routes before decongesting the section with capacity augmentation.

Besides, the national carrier also decided to go for retrofitting of all old conventional coaches with enhanced safety features of anti-climbing technology, like the ones in the modern Linke Hoffman Busch (LHB) coaches.

"It has been decided in the board meeting not to launch new trains on the over-saturated routes. New trains will be pressed into service on these routes only after decongestion and capacity augmentation in the section," said a senior Railway Ministry official.

There was a review of entire safety scenario at the Railway Board meeting in the wake of the Indore-Patna Express derailment near Kanpur which has claimed at least 146 lives.

It was also decided to step up manufacturing of LHB coaches for the complete replacement of conventional coaches manufactured at Integrated Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai.

LHB coaches have anti-climbing feature which prevent them from toppling and piling-up in case of derailment.

However, since the old ICF coaches are being replaced in a gradual manner, it was decided to equip all new ICF coaches with modern safety couplers.

Old ICF coaches have to be retrofitted with anti-climbing feature like LHB coaches, the official said.

Railways also decided to increase the frequencies of ultra sonic flaw detection system and at the same time opt for a new technology based on ultra sonic ray system to detect rail fracture in the Moradabad-Allahabad section.