The Hindu Business Line : Trains crash, while politicians clash

CAN we Indians really understand why the worst rail disaster in four decades took place in Osaka, Japan, recently? No, I'm afraid not. For running late by 90 seconds — that's all the time it took for disaster to strike — is not a concern in a country that goes by the maxim, `Better late than never'.

In fact, a train behind schedule by 90 seconds would be regarded as being well on the dot. Except in Japan, perhaps, where a 90-second delay in run time would befuddle commuters, who depend on railroad punctuality. Japan is a country, as every one knows, obsessed with punctuality and efficiency. The Japanese believe that if they board a train, they will arrive on time.

The Japanese search for rail perfection is relentless — from the humble commuter train to the country's most famous tracks.

On the 40th anniversary of the bullet train in 2004, authorities apologised to the public that the average delay for the year on that line had increased six seconds!

In Tokyo, travel time on the Yamanote line, which loops around the city, was reduced from 75 minutes in 1946 to under 60 minutes in 60 years.

According to notices, delays are never caused by engineering mishaps but by events beyond human control, such as natural calamities and suicides. And conductors apologise profusely for even a minute's delay.

So confident is Japan about its trains' safety that there are no restrictions on how close to the tracks residential buildings can be erected; it is not uncommon to see them only three feet apart.

The accident took place reportedly because the driver, with less than a year's experience, had been reprimanded earlier for overshooting the platform and the consequent delay in backing up. Therefore, on that ill-fated day he drove the train on a curve at 62 mph when the prescribed speed limit was 44 mph.

Of course, the lessons to be learnt from our own accidents are many. We could learn one thing from the Osaka rail accident and that is punctuality.

Additionally, it appears now we may have to install anti-collision devices, both between political parties and leaders to stave off clashes arising out of crashes asalso between potentially ramming trains. Although we are repeatedly told that most disasters are due to human failures, we have never seen those responsible punished for culpable homicide. We do not seem to have the time or the will to avert them despite grandiose announcements of Rail Safety Plans.

One good way to bring in accountability is to privatise the railways. As long as the government runs it, unconscionable and callous political masters will not allow the public to appraise the performance of railways in the matter of safety or any other parameter on their own merit as they will also be one of the numerous issues of `Roti, Kapada or Makaan' or `Bijli, Sadak or Pani'; or Hindutva and Secularism.

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