Indian Railway Guidelines: Keeping in view the difficulties faced during the foggy season during the last years, North Central Railway has prepared a detailed plan for rail transportation regarding safety.
Indian Railway: Due to low visibility due to dense fog during the winter season, the transport system and Indian Railways are badly affected in the past years. In view of this, the North Central Railway (North Central Railway) has taken several major steps, including routine actions from previous years as well as new initiatives, to reduce the ill effects of fog on train operations to make passengers reach their destinations on time. Keeping in view the difficulties faced during the foggy season during the last years, Rail Transportation (Rail TransportationA detailed plan has been drawn up.
Explain that due to low visibility in the dense fog during the winter season, goods and coaching trains transportation Due to being affected, many types of protocols related to safety are implemented, in which the speed limit is fixed on the route affected by fog. Because of which trains get late and many trains have to be rescheduled. Not only this, many times trains have to be canceled due to excessive delay.
These difficulties come in front of the railway due to dense fog
- Irregular arrival and departure of rakes due to late running of trains.
- There is a shortage of loco pilots due to increase in working hours due to problems on the route and slow speed of trains.
- Due to late running of trains, there is an impact on the time table of trains, their maintenance time at washing line complex.
- Due to the late running of trains, there is a lot of impact on the facilities of food and drink.
- Huge crowds of passengers waiting on the platforms of major rail terminals begin to grow.
- Due to speed restrictions and capacity constraints, minimum utilization of assets and overtime of loco pilots lead to increase in the cost of transportation.
Railways made preparations regarding security
- All locomotives are provided with GPS based fogsafe devices at the signal location to warn the loco pilots about the possibility of sighting the signal in case of poor visibility. 850 such devices have been made available in Prayagraj division, 558 in Jhansi division and 376 in Agra division.
- The speed of the locomotive during fog and bad weather conditions shall be as per the prescribed rules. Cold weather patrolling of railway lines is being done to identify any possible problem in the railway track especially at night. Patrolman is equipped with all personal protective equipments and light weight maintenance tools for efficient inspection of track with ease.
- GPS based hand-held devices have been provided to the staff patrolling the railway line so that they can immediately transmit information about any untoward incident to the nearest stations on both sides. Change of automatic signaling system to modified automatic signalling. This will be helpful in controlling the number of trains between two stations during fog.
- All caution boards, whistle boards etc. have been provided with retro reflective coating for better visibility. Lime marking on signal approaches on track is also done at regular intervals to assist loco pilots in low visibility conditions. Plans and reviews locos, drivers, link racks in fog to allow adequate rest time for crew.
- Visibility test has been arranged by the station masters to check the fog condition in the station and its surrounding areas. Loco pilots have been given special training to deal with low visibility cases. According to the situation on the railway lines, they will control the speed limit of the trains with their discretion and understanding.
- Staff of North Central Railway as well as staff of neighboring Zonal Railways like North Eastern Railway, Northern Railway, North Western Railway, West Central Railway, East Central Railway etc. are also given fog related training and during winters in North Central Railway zone. Proper training is ensured before allowing them to work.
- No crew or guard is allowed to operate trains without passing Medical Examination (PME). Special attention is given to the availability of air tight, heater in cab room, proper retro reflective X mark on SLR, flashing lights etc. during winter drives to locomotives and coaches and other rolling stock.
English News Headline : Indian Railway Guidelines for dealing with dense fog in winter.
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