Issues

Most of the railway stations and cars are in gross disrepair, dirty, outdated and overcrowded. It is common to see passengers on trains hanging out windows and even on the roof creating safety problems. The interior of the trains are poorly maintained - "very dirty, broken seats, filthy toilets, loose wires tangled in the passageways, chipped paint, and the usual stinks." The railway has not yet been successful in addressing the overcrowding, cleanliness and other maintenance issues. Although accidents such as derailment and collisions are less common in recent times, many are run over by trains, especially in crowded areas. Indian Railways have accepted the fact that given the size of operations, eliminating accidents is an unrealistic goal, and at best they can only minimize the accident rate. Human error is the primary cause, leading to 83% of all train accidents in India. While accident rates are low - 0.55 accidents per million train kilometre, the absolute number of people killed is high because of the large number of people making use of the network. While strengthening and modernisation of railway infrastructure is in progress, much of the network still uses old signalling and has antiquated bridges.[35] Lack of funds is a major constraint for speedy modernisation of the network, which is further hampered by diversion of funds meant for infrastructure to lower-prioritised purposes due to political compulsions. In order to solve this problem, the Ministry of Railways in 2001 created a non-lapsable safety fund of Rs. 17000 crore exclusively for the renewal of overaged tracks, bridges, rolling stock and signalling gear. In 2003, the Ministry also prepared a Corporate Safety Plan for the next ten years with the objective of realising a vision of an accident-free and casualty-free railway system. The plan, with and outlay of Rs. 31835 crore, also envisaged development of appropriate technology for higher level of safety in train operation.