Retired railway officials and experts have slammed the Central Railway for the collision of the suburban train at CST station, saying that the injuries would have been less if CST had hydraulic buffers similar to those at Churchgate.
Retired railway officials and experts have slammed the Central Railway for the collision of the suburban train at CST station, saying that the injuries would have been less if CST had hydraulic buffers similar to those at Churchgate.
Eight commuters were injured after a train collided with the dead-end of platform four at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus on Sunday morning.
“The buffers at Churchgate are long enough to keep the train away in case of a collision and are filled with water tanks at the end of the platform, which do not allow any train to come near it, even if there is a collision,” a retired official from Central Railways (CR) said.
Another retired official from the mechanical department said buffers are basically shock absorbers and they should always be in proper shape to take the force of the train, which is about 3,000 tonnes and at a speed.
The ones at CST are cheap mechanical buffers, not fit enough for a big terminus like itself; especially, when similar accidents have occurred there.
“Inspections by top managers of stations do not always help, if they are blind to these things,” another official added.
“If the CR was serious about commuters’ safety, they would have installed hydraulic buffers at the dead-end like those at Churchgate. The ones at CST are smaller mechanical pieces, which do not absorb shocks and hence the train almost climbed over the platform,” a top retired official said.
The train that entered CST had faulty brakes, according to the train’s log book and trade union’s allegations. This also means that there were safety violations at the carshed.
Motormen have blamed the brakes and the new age train’s regenerative braking mechanism, which many times does not work when the train is travelling at less than 10kmph.
CR officials said they had formed an internal committee to look into all such aspects.
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