Train delays due to fog: Railways now have an answer

As the fog engulfs northern parts of the country in winters, hundreds of trains get delayed, cancelled or re-scheduled and thousands of passengers face great inconvenience. To tackle this problem, the Indian Railways has started installing fog safety device in trains which would enable the drivers to increase speed and reduce the delays.

The GPS enabled device alerts the engine driver about the level crossing and signals well in advance. So, when the driver knows that there are no hurdles, he can increase the speed which would result is lesser delays.

"We have used GPS technology in the device with a map of tracks, signals, stations and level crossing of Northern Railway in it. It alerts loco pilot about level crossing/signal. When drivers know there are no hurdles, they can increase speed," Northern Railway CPRO, Nitin Chowdhary, told news agency ANI.

Apart from this, the Indian Railways is also working towards upgrading Indian Railways infrastructure, especially computerisation of the signalling system. To further reduce the inconvenience of the commuters, the Railways on Wednesday expanded its SMS alerts for departure delays of over an hour to more than 1,000 trains, including premium and superfast express trains.

As many as 60 trains were running late and 14 cancelled due to fog and poor visibility in Delhi and other parts of North India on Thursday morning. 18 trains were rescheduled due to fog. 20 flights were also delayed due to poor visibility. Thousands of passengers are affected daily due to flight and train delays as north India reels under the cold, with temperatures dipping to as low 5.7 degrees Celsius in Delhi.

OneIndia News