New Delhi Railway Station Stampede: Railways Highlights Lack of Access Control

New Delhi Railway Station Stampede: The unfortunate stampede at New Delhi Railway Station, in which nearly 18 passengers perished, has now focused the attention again on the need for station access control and haphazard issuing of unreserved tickets that, in turn, lead to crowding that cannot be handled.

While the Railways Ministry has indicated that it wishes to come up with crowd management control measures after the incident, senior railway officials said it may be a non-starter unless someone pours the blame on those two issues.

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“The incident was waiting to happen considering the number of trains being run, publicity for the religious event and enthusiasm among the public. It is not as if railway staff are not trained to tackle large crowd, but in this instance, it happened in a flash,” said a senior official, seeking anonymity.

People with luggage are spilling over those sitting on the steps of the foot over bridge, which is perhaps representative of the malaise affecting all major stations, which have become the haven for the homeless, the shelter for the daily wagers, the vagabonds, the rag pickers, the beggars, the drunks, the drug addicts, and what have you.

“It has become dangerous not only for the passengers but also for the railway staff at the Secunderabad station. There have been instances of loco pilots on shunting duties targetted by anti-social elements on their return after taking the engines/trains to the yards for cleaning,” informed another railway official.

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Lamentably, access control measures are missing for an "airport" kind of station under construction since anyone and everyone can get onto platforms one and ten via a generous expanse of open space a little distance away and through "gaps" in the wall/fences. Some officials feel that the RPF should be empowered with measures to ensure that unreserved coaches do not get packed like sardines; ticketless travellers should be fined heftily; they should allow passengers to access the platform one hour before the train arrives there, and ensure that the incoming and outgoing passengers are separated, and so on.

“We will sure have better access control once the stations redevelopment is done here and few other main stations. We also do take up special drives to round up anti-social elements at the cost of our staff being attacked and produce them before the courts, but what can be we do beyond this social issue,” asked another senior official.

Allowing unreserved travel in general coaches where tickets are issued generously for a destination instead of a specific train seems to be a complicated issue as it allows passengers to get into any train within few hours.

“There will be an uproar if we do stop people from getting into a train. But, usually we do have have back up plans to have a new service to disperse the crowd. Announcing special train in advance within a few hours to prevent crowded travel and introducing short shuttle services from alternate trains could help. Since lives are stake, it is better to enforce certain norms and make use of technology to plan better,” he added.

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