Space between trains, platforms violates safety norms, poses risk

While it must be acknowledged that almost all ‘falls’ were due to recklessness of passengers boarding moving trains, vulnerability of those falling due to wide ‘gaps’ on station platforms was another issue the railways can’t overlook.

A quick inspection of the platforms at Central and Egmore terminals, which recorded miraculous saves of lives more frequently than other stations, with one as recently as on Monday and Tuesday, revealed that there was wide space between trains and platforms that could easily trap passengers. The fears were vindicated by a few officials who admitted that there was some mismatch between the standard moving dimension (SMD) prescribed in the railway rule book and the actual distance between train and platform at the aforesaid stations.

As per the railway manual, the distance between the centre of the track and edge of the platform should be 1,670-1,680mm in all stations. Railway rules also specify that stations such as Chennai Central, Egmore and Tambaram (all three are terminals), which have high-level platforms, ought to maintain 760-840mm from rail level to the platform surface.

Curiously, Divisional Railway Manager Navin Gulati said safety checks were conducted recently and the platforms at all three terminals conformed to the SMD specification of the Railway Ministry. He blamed passengers for recklessly boarding moving trains, which was an undeniable factor contributing to such falls.

Southern Railway had made similar claims about the St Thomas Mount railway station only to be exposed by the Commissioner of Railway Safety who revealed engineering flaws in his probe conducted after the double accident claiming seven lives at the station in July. Another senior SR officer conceded that the violation might be only a few millimeters, but it was enough for a person to slip through.

“In all saved cases, the passengers slipped from unreserved coaches and RPF constables, coincidentally, were close to them as they were on duty to seal the luggage vans. What if a person had slipped from a sleeper or AC coach away from the constables guarding the luggage van? Even if the constable was delayed by a couple of seconds, the passenger would have lost balance and fallen on the tracks as the buffer connecting two coaches would only be a millisecond away from the footboard where the passenger is trapped,” a senior SR officer said.