Why do Bharat trains run late?

One of my senior has an exam on 15-9-2023 he boarded a train on 14-9-23 and reached the destination by a delay of 3:30 hours and he wasn't able to attend the exam due to a delay in the train journey not only my senior many of us faced the same situation and lost event what we preplanned so this problem in governance made me write this article.  Close to 17% of all passenger trains were running late leading to over 1.10 crore lost minutes in 2022-23, according to a Right to Information reply received from the Indian Railways, on punctuality performance of trains.

In 2022-23, up to 1,42,897 passenger trains were delayed leading to a cumulative 1,10,88,191 lost minutes. “One year comprises 5,25,660 minutes. By that measure, the time lost (theoretically) by the Railways due to delay is nearly 14 years for passenger trains,” said RTI activist Chandrasekhar Gour, who had sought the reply.

In a first-of-its-kind verdict in September last year, the Supreme Court ordered Indian Railways to pay compensation of Rs 30,000 to a passenger who missed a Jammu-Srinagar flight because a train (Ajmer-Jammu Express) reached its destination four hours late. However, Indian Railways and delays have been abreast for decades now.

According to a CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report, Rs 2.5 lakh crore has been invested in the infrastructure of the Indian Railways between 2008 and 2019. But, despite this huge investment, the punctuality of trains has seen an insignificant increase. As per the audit, only a 0.18 percent improvement has been noted in punctuality. 2017-18 has been the worst performing year in terms of punctuality for the Indian Railways where 30 percent of all trains ran late.

Reasons behind delays in trains 

Infrastructure also plays a key role in the punctuality of trains. Factors like train traffic, new lines, doubling, and track gauges, among other things, contribute to how smoothly the railway network runs. The infrastructure also plays its role in decongesting traffic nodes. CAG also noted how train delays are also triggered due to stations running out of space for trains.

The CAG report noted that factors like path, engineering, block & signal, and telecommunication contribute to 51 percent of the train’s punctuality. The report suggested that reducing the congestion on tracks can greatly influence trains running on time.

External factors 

The Railway Board under the Department of Signalling and Telecom maintains reports on the punctuality of trains and their average speeds. “Logging of punctuality in right earnest is equally important for system improvement,” 

“Trains may get delayed due to external factors beyond railways control, for instance, constraints on account of inadequate infrastructure, or increasing passenger and freight traffic, adverse weather conditions, or heavy road traffic at level crossing gates. There could also be law and order issues, theft of railway assets, and mid-section run-over cases including cattle and humans

How to overcome this?

The government launched an initiative called “Mission Raftaar" in 2016 which aimed at increasing the average speed of freight trains and Mail//Express trains by 2021-22. The CAG audit, as reported by Times of India, noted that the speed of the trains is yet to be increased.

All over the world concept of traveling has changed from distance-based to time-based due to many factors so India also changing its approach from distance-based travel to time-based travel The Indian Railways has, however, introduced the Vande Bharat Express which is capable of running at speeds of 160-180 kph As per the data charted out by TOI, Vande Bharat has been able to maintain a healthy punctuality rate but speed is not the only contributing factor. There is also less halt time at the stations, minimal turnaround time, and faster acceleration and deceleration which contributes to Vande Bharat’s punctuality.

The Railways constantly works on improving punctuality by removing infrastructural bottlenecks; end-to-end running of some trains with diesel locomotives to avoid detention on account of loco changing from diesel to electric; conversion of conventional rakes of mail/express trains to newer Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) rakes; rationalizing time-table to make a group of similar speed trains; curtailment of stoppage time at major terminals and so on.

Refund for delay 

Passengers holding reserved, RAC, and waitlisted tickets are eligible for a full refund without any cancellation charge if the delay is more than three hours from its scheduled departure time.

What Can Be Learnt From Railways In Other Countries?

The concept of traveling has changed from distance-based to time-based as The report noted that India has too high a threshold for measuring punctuality. While India’s punctuality yardstick stands at 15 minutes, other countries have a much lesser threshold. Japan, for instance, has a threshold of a few seconds. Netherlands’ punctuality yardstick is at 3 minutes.

Countries like China have developed dedicated high-speed lines that are separate from the regular network of railways. These high-speed railway lines have great reliability and a good record of punctuality.

Many technology-based solutions are also in use in various parts of the world. CAG report also suggests the use of computerized labeling and grouping of trains to improve punctuality.