Kanchanjunga Express Tragedy: How common are train accidents in India? Why do they keep happening?

India has witnessed yet another gruesome train accident.

At least 15 people are dead and 60 injured in West Bengal after a goods train collided with the Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express near Rangapani station.

Rescue operations are on at the spot around seven kilometres from North Bengal’s New Jalpaiguri station, and the injured are being shifted to nearby hospitals.

This comes after two trains collided in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram in October 2023 – leaving 13 dead and 50 injured – in an incident officials attributed to ‘human error.’

In June 2023, a three-train collision in Odisha’s Balasore left 296 dead and over 1,200 injured in what was India’s worst rail accident in over two decades.

But how common are train accidents in India? Why do they keep happening? And how does it compare with other nations?

Let’s take a closer look:

First, let’s take a brief look at the Indian Railways.

Spread across the country from the Himalayas in the north to the beaches in the south, the Indian Railways is one of the world’s most extensive and complicated systems.

It was built during the British colonial era.

It has over 64,000 kilometers of tracks, 14,000 passenger trains and 8,000 stations.

The Modi government has invested tens of billions of dollars in the railways.

The money has been spent on renovating or replacing the old tracks laid by the British in the 19th Century, introducing new trains and removing thousands of unmanned railway crossings.

How common are they?

The data from the Indian Railways shows that train accidents aren’t very common at all.

Even better, the number of accidents has massively decreased over the past few decades.

According to The Quint, the period between 1960-1961 and 1970-1971 witnessed 14,769 train accidents.

The 1971-1972 to 1981-1982 period recorded 9,968 accidents.

The period between 1982-1983 and 1992-1993 saw 7,013 accidents.

The 1993-1994 to 2003-2004 decade witnessed 4,620 accidents.

The period between 2004-2005 and 2014-2015 saw 1,853 accidents.

And the 2015-2016 to 2021-2022 period recorded just 449 accidents.

However, a 2022 report published by the National Crime Records Bureau stated that there were more than 100,000 train-related deaths in India from 2017 to 2021.

According to India’s Comptroller and Auditor General, Indian Railways recorded 2,017 accidents from 2017 to 2021.

Derailments accounted for 69 per cent of the accidents, resulting in 293 deaths.

Why do they keep happening?

Most of the train accidents in India are chalked up to human error or outdated equipment.

Derailments have been the biggest cause of rail accidents in India.

However, official data shows derailments have been on a decline in recent years.

Of the 14,769 train accidents that occurred between 1960-61 and 1970-71, 11,312 were derailments, as per The Quint.

News18 quoted data from the Commission of Railway Safety as showing that 75 percent of the accidents between 2017-18 and 2022-2023 came due to derailment.

The data showed 55 per cent of the train accidents between the period between 2017-18 and 2021-22 were caused by railway staff error.

The highest percentage of accidents due to working staff error, 65 per cent, occurred in 2019-2020.

Meanwhile, the lowest percentage of accidents – 43 per cent, occurred due to “error in working by railway staff,” in 2021-2022, according to  data from the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) and Ministry of Railways.

Around 55 per cent of the accidents were due to human error including road users, passengers and miscreants in 2021-2022.

That figure was at 73 per cent in 2020-2021.

News18 quoted data from the CRS as showing that of the 292 accidents between 2017-2018 and 2022-2023, 220 were derailments.

That works out to 75 per cent of all train accidents.

IndiaSpend quoted a 2022 Comptroller and Auditor General report as noting that 7 in 10 railway accidents between 2018 to 2021 came due to derailments.

The report found multiple factors including track defects, maintenance issues, outdated signaling equipment, and human errors as main causes of the derailments.

It also said lack of money or non-utilisation of available funds for track restorations led to 26 percent of the accidents.

Level crossing accidents are the second biggest reason for accidents followed by fire and collisions in third and fourth place, as per The Quint.

Data from the CRS and Indian Railways backs this up with fire being cited as the reason behind 28 accidents.

What about the Kavach anti-collision system?

Modern trains are designed to help reduce the risk of crashes and derailments.

They will be paired with the Kavach anti-collision system – a countrywide automatic train collision protection system which at will make travel safe, according to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The Kavach system, developed by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with private players, can apply brakes automatically in case of an emergency when a train driver fails to act in time.

Vaishnaw in February said the implementation of the automatic train protection system was witnessing good progress across the rail network.

Talking to reporters at the Rail BhavanVaishnaw said Kavach has five components — optical fibre work, Kavach towers, data centres at stations, trackside equipment and loco Kavach.

“Good progress has been made in installing all these five components. By the end of December 2023, optical fibre cables were laid on 3,040-km routes, along with the installation of 269 Kavach towers. Data centres are ready at 186 stations and trackside equipment has been installed on 827-km routes. Besides, loco Kavach has been fitted in 170 locomotives,” he said.

“There are three Kavach manufacturers in the country. The approval process for two more manufacturers is under consideration. Since it is a safety system, the approval takes a minimum of two-and-a-half years,” Vaishnaw added.

He said while the ATP (automatic train protection) system was introduced and implemented across the world in the 1990s, successive governments in India did not pay any attention to train protection and safety.

“In 2016, the Kavach was approved and its trials were started. It is a safety system for which getting certification is very tough. It requires Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL 4) certification. Normally, a safety system takes many years to get SIL 4 certification. It took us three years to get an SIL 4 certificate. We got the certification in 2018,” Vaishnaw said.

“We faced problems due to COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021. We expedited its implementation from 2021 onwards,” he added.

The cost of the Kavach system is considerable.

As per Financial Express, the trackside and station equipment costs around Rs 50 lakh per kilomete.

Outfitting a train with Kavach technology costs around Rs 70 lakh .

The 2023-2024 budget earmarked Rs 710 crore for the system.

Another Rs 560 crore was allotted in the interim budget for the 2025 fiscal.

Experts say that the country’s railway system needs to prioritise safe tracks and collision protection.

“India has achieved some success in making train journeys safer over the years, but a lot more needs to be done. The entire system needs a realignment and distributed development. We can’t just focus on modern trains and have tracks that aren’t safe,” Swapnil Garg, a former officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers, said in the aftermath of the Odisha tragedy.

“I don’t expect authorities to turn the key and fix things quickly. The Indian railway system is huge and it will take time to make it safer. But there needs to be a will,” he added.

Experts say an overhaul is needed.

“India has achieved some success in making train journeys safer over the years, but a lot more needs to be done. The entire system needs a realignment and distributed development. We can’t just focus on modern trains and have tracks that aren’t safe,” Swapnil Garg, a former officer of the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers, said in the aftermath of the Odisha tragedy.

“I don’t expect authorities to turn the key and fix things quickly. The Indian railway system is huge and it will take time to make it safer. But there needs to be a will,” he added.

What about train accidents abroad?

In the US

According to the National Safety Council, the US recorded 954 railway deaths in 2022 – the highest number since 2007.

That figure was up 11 per cent from 859 in 2021.

Meanwhile, non-fatal injuries were at 6,252.

That is up six per cent from 5,882 in 2021.

Meanwhile, fatalities at highway-rail crossings spiked 16 per cent from 2021 to 2022.

Meanwhile, deaths involving other types of incidents increased nine per cent.

The latter comprised 651 deaths (96 per cent) attributed to trespassers.

In 2022, 10 employees died on duty.

That figure was 11 in 2021.

There were just seven train passenger deaths in 2022 and six deaths in 2021.

In 2022, 29 per cent of the 954 deaths happened at railway crossings.

Of the 3,243 non-fatal occupational railroad injuries and illnesses reported in 2022, 73 were attributed to highway-rail crossing incidents.

In the EU

According to the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA), the EU has seen its number of accidents reduce steadily.

The EU recorded 1,245 accidents in 2010 and 808 in 2022 – a 35 per cent drop.

However, the ERA noted that the decrease in recent years came as the number of passengers using trains dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bloc recorded 1,615 significant railway accidents in 2022.

The accidents left 808 dead and 593 seriously injured.

The toll was 18.3 per cent higher than 2021.

“With the end of the restrictions, rail traffic increased significantly, which can explain the increase observed in the number accidents and consequently in the number of fatalities in 2022 compared to 2021,” the ERA stated.

In the UK

According to the Office of Rail and Road, the United Kingdom witnessed just eight passenger deaths in the period between April 2022 and March 2023.

Of these, three occurred in mainline stations and two at the platform-train interface.

Two passenger deaths occurred at stations on the London Underground.

One death came as a result of a tram hitting a member of the public.

Meanwhile, just two railway employees were killed in the April 2022 to March 2023 period.

Two employees also died between April 2021 and March 2022.

Eleven 11 people who died in accidents while trespassing in the April 2022 to March 2023 period.

Of these, ten were trespass deaths.

‘Unfortunate accident’

A number of politicians have expressed sorrow over the incident.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a post on X: “Unfortunate accident in NFR zone. Rescue operations going on at war footing. Railways, NDRF and SDRF are working in close coordination. Injured are being shifted to the hospital. Senior officials have reached site.”

President Droupadi Murmu on Monday condoled the loss of lives in a train accident in West Bengal, and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.

“The news of the loss of lives due to a train accident in Darjeeling, West Bengal is deeply distressing. My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families. I pray for the speedy recovery of the injured and success of relief and rescue operations,” Murmu said in a post on X.

In a post on X, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said: “Shocked to learn, just now, about a tragic train accident, in Phansidewa area of Darjeeling district. While details are awaited, Kanchanjunga Express has reportedly been hit by a goods train.

“DM, SP, doctors, ambulances and disaster teams have been rushed to the site for rescue, recovery, medical assistance. Action on war-footing initiated.”

A passenger from Agartala, who was in coach number S6 of the Kanchanjunga Express, said he felt a sudden jerk and the compartment screeched to a halt.

He also claimed that the relief and rescue operations were delayed.

“My wife, child and I somehow managed to come out of the mangled coach. We are currently stranded… The rescue operations also started quite late," the passenger told a television channel.

With inputs from agencies