A railway employee was crushed to death on Saturday after being caught between the buffers of the engine and a train coach during a shunting operation. The incident which took place at the Barauni Junction station in Bihar was captured in a video – now viral on social media – highlighting serious concerns over worker safety and the outdated manual coupling systems in Indian rail operations.
At least 361 railway workers died on duty between 2019 and November 2023, according to data presented by the Ministry of Railways in Rajya Sabha.
A coordination gap between two pointsmen during the manual coupling process has been stated as the cause of the accident in the preliminary inquiry report. One pointsman reportedly gave the loco driver a wrong signal, leading to the other pointsman working between the locos getting crushed.
Data sourced from various media reports shows at least 13 incidents related to manual coupling took place in 2024 alone, claiming the lives of at least seven railway workers.
The modus of coordination in the current coupling process is “manual shunt signals and flags” given to concerned track maintainers. “There are red and green flags as well as hand signals used,” sources in Indian Railways told India Today.
This incident brings back focus on the Indian Railways’ safety measures for track maintainers, including a coordination device called RAKSHAK introduced in 2018. Designed as a handheld walkie-talkie device, this advanced system uses LED lights, buzzer and vibration alerts to warn track staff of approaching trains on their line.
Alongside standard protective gear — boots, gloves, raincoats, jackets, and toolkits, RAKSHAK device is also provided to track maintenance workers on certain routes. But the device, too, has limitations.
The sources cited above said RAKSHAK remains just an “additional safety tool” while the Railways continues to rely on IRPWM (Indian Railways Permanent Way Manual) provisions for personal safety of track maintainers.
“RAKSHAK, the VHF (very high frequency)-based Approaching Train Warning System for track maintainers on the Golden Quadrilateral-Golden Diagonal routes, was approved in 2018. However, field use has revealed limitations: it does not work in multi-line sections or automatic signaling block, relies on line-of-sight, and is ineffective in hilly terrain, ghat sections, dense forests, buildings, curves, and shadow zones. Its performance is also dependent on antenna direction and height,” one of the sources said.
COUPLING METHODS IN RAILWAYS
Screw couplings are used in IRS wagons and ICF (integral coach factory) designed coaches, which are mostly used in India. It requires one train compartment (or engine) to remain parked while a track worker manually couples the trains. The vehicles approach, aligning movable knuckles that rotate and lock with a pin in place, while shock-absorbing buffers meet to stabilise the connection.
Rail workers are required to stand between the cars as they come together and guide the link into the coupler pocket. They are also the ones who insert the pin to hold the link in place once the compartments come together.
The process poses significant risk to the workers and has gradually fallen out of fashion in several parts of the world.
The other alternative to screw coupling used in India is the central buffer coupling system, used in LHB (Linke-Hofmann-Busch) type coaches.
Indian Railways is gradually replacing ICF coaches with LHB coaches, which use a central buffer coupling system rather than screw coupling. LHB coaches, known for their anti-climbing feature that prevents pile-ups in accidents, are designed to be safer, faster, and more comfortable than conventional coaches.
However, this central buffer coupling (CBC) system is automatic for coupling, but manual for uncoupling, which means it requires human intervention in the shunting process.
ADVANCE COUPLING PROCESSES
The latest coupling method being developed in European countries is Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC). It is a key component in the digitisation process of rail freight transport being adopted in increasing the number of trains in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Currently, most trains in Germany use the Albert coupling method, which is a kind of magnetic coupling requiring zero human intervention. In America, a more sophisticated form of center buffer coupling called the “Janney coupler” is used that couples and uncouples bogies without manual assistance.
A fully automatic railway coupling method using electric and pneumatic connections and disconnections called the Scharfenberg coupler is commonly used in France.