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© Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Passenger trains derail in India, killing more than 280
By ASHOK SHARMA NEW DELHI©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
33 Comments
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Alan Harrison
This a every day occurrence in India,....
No, it does not happen every day in India.
Ah_so
It may be the world's biggest population, but it is very far from having the biggest economy.
purple_depressed_bacon
How absolutely horrific. Prayers and condolences to the families.
nandakandamanda
A terrible accident. Words fail. What causes a train to derail like that?
wallace
That is many deaths, 200 for a train crash. Tragic.
wallace
It was a three-train crash. Two passenger trains and a parked goods train. It was the crash that caused the trains to derail.
stormcrow
RIP
Peter Neil
It goes off the track.
elephant200
Speeding, overloaded and disorganised train traffic mostly cashing derailing. India has a massive population but the tracks were the old one. Speeding to get faster transportation might caused the tragedy!
Marr Bourdein
India's public transportation safety regulations are a joke. No capacity limits, no animals restrictions, smoking allowed everywhere, toilets are always a horrendous experience, people in the isles, by the exits, on the roof and it's always loud and smelly. India needs to revamp its public transportation before it decides to step out of third world country level, but that still takes another 20-50 years to accomplish. At this rate give them another 100 years.
Mark
Again???
How many times this year alone?
Speed
What caused the first train to derail? This seems to be the most important bit of news that's missing.
virusrex
"Making efforts" is not the same as succeeding at doing something, as this horrible tragedy clearly proves. Unfortunately the population only demands improvements for some time and then things gets forgotten, which means this huge unnecessary loss of lives will end up happening again in the future.
virusrex
They are, else they would not happen time after time again. Remembering disasters enough to put forwards measures to prevent future occurences is not something that is happening here. Things improve for a few weeks, maybe months, and then go back to the same unsafe standards until something tragic happens again.
EvilBuddha
And Indians are dreaming of bullet train LOL.
Modi sells dreams to buy votes.
mrtinjp
Multiple attempts in last week to cause train derailment/accident, this one unfortunately went thru, Modi for one does not react to such incidents, but this time he stated the obvious.
https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/story/odisha-train-accident-no-one-will-be-spared-says-pm-modi-vowing-stringent-action-and-support-for-victims-384087-2023-06-03
Desert Tortoise
Your link makes no such assertion. There is no account of previous threats to deliberately cause a trail derailment. At this point what caused the first train to derail is unknown. They way I understood Mr. Modi's comments was that those who's negligence in the maintenance and / or operation of the trains involved or of the rail lines themselves that caused the disaster will be held accountable. It did not imply criminal or terrorist activity to damage the rail line or train and cause a derailment.
virusrex
280 dead people and over 900 wounded clearly demonstrate that being "well aware" means nothing.
gcFd1
A blatant contradiction to the article:
Ashwini Vaishnaw, India's railway minister, said a high-level probe would be carried out, as the political opposition criticized the government and called for Vaishnaw to resign.
CPTOMO
You consider long term studies by the Indian government to be an example of apathy?
Do you understand the meaning of apathy?
EvilBuddha
"Making efforts" is not the same as succeeding at doing something, as this horrible tragedy clearly proves.
Indian Railways is a loss making state run enterprise and it's heavily subsidised for political reasons. Introducing newer trains and lowering ticket prices before elections brings in votes, whereas investing in safety or raising prices to generate funds for investing in infrastructure will not.
https://m.thewire.in/article/government/railways-losses-gaps-planning-management-parliamentary-panel/amp
Privatization is the only answer to improve the state of affairs but that will never be allowed to happen.
gcFd1
Entirely not true. These accidents are not forgotten.
mrtinjp
Indian Railways is a loss making state run enterprise
In some alternate reality, this is now definitely a profit making enterprise, and yes privatization is coming but not the western style privatization.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2023/mar/13/post-covid-railways-exceeds-profit-expectations-2555577.html
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/indian-railways-recorded-a-71-jump-in-revenue-earnings-for-passenger-segment-11672657993970.html
elephant200
@EvilBudda. Do you mean the bullet train gifted by Shinzo Abe? Nine years is not enough to do preliminary works, perhaps quite longer time than expected. You know the efficiency of India is "The best" !
mrtinjp
A terrible accident. Words fail. What causes a train to derail like that?
The sequence of events was like this on this electrified semi high speed line, first a goods train arrives and is looped out of the two main lines and put on the looped line, after this transition the automated interlocking system does not revert back to the main line further the signal turns green for the next train, which at speed of 130kph hits the interlock and derails, and at the same time a 3rd train at similar speed on the other main line is passing thru, it almost passes but the last 3 coaches are hit by this derailment, too much of a coincidence.
Let's hope this is technical issue in the anti-collision system, and if this is sabotage, strong pointers are towards sabotage, than this time Modi will go after everyone in that ecosystem, including the narrative.
mrtinjp
Your link makes no such assertion. There is no account of previous threats to deliberately cause a trail derailment.
Well, here you go...
https://www.dailypioneer.com/2017/page1/isi-funded-terrorist-caused-train-accidents.html
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/bihar-train-attack-suspect-flees-to-pak-from-uae/article61802226.ece
mrtinjp
@Desert Tortoise
Further articles for your review..
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/explosion-on-udaipur-ahmedabad-railway-track-cracks-train-services-affected-2296731-2022-11-13
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-trains-accident-idUSTRE64Q70Y20100528
Just to add, Indian railways has its bomb disposal squad, could also review this rather detailed study on derailments causing mass casualties due to sabotage, just look at the country at the top of the list.
https://ser.indianrailways.gov.in/view_section.jsp?lang=0&id=0,6,400,661,668,938
https://transweb.sjsu.edu/sites/default/files/1794_Jenkins_Train-Wrecks-Train-Attacks.pdf
virusrex
Nothing in the article (much less the part you bring) contradicts the terrible consequences of the disaster, something that was completely preventable if not for the lack of action that have lead to similar things happening repeatedly.
Which is what I said, short lived attention that is quickly replaced by apathy leading to minimum (if any) measures to prevent a recurrence, which is why this keeps happening in India, unlike other countries.
virusrex
I consider the failure to prevent the accidents an example of apathy, making a study is much easier and cheaper than actually doing something effective to avoid preventable deaths.
If a doctor fails to cure a problem others have solved, it would be justified to call this apathy (or criminal negligence) even if this doctor ordered dozens and dozens of tests (without doing anything effective with the results)
CPTOMO
Obviously the fact this accident is being well-publicized shows the people and Indian government are well aware of the problem.
Rodney
Soon to be worlds first biggest economy thanks to LDP, and the most peoples in the world.
CPTOMO
Absolutely true. The people and government are well-aware:
Despite government efforts to improve rail safety,
Yrral
This a every day occurrence in India,you see Indian riding up ,on top ,and sideways,on train,never see on bullet train,the government of India, should have safety standards better than today