Oh! What a Tangled Web We Weave
When First We Practice to Deceive!
You started challenging me - and I will show you what Tera India looks like. Get out of Gurgaon and see what India really looks like.
The Curious Case Of The Crumbling Coaches (does this look like Bangladesh to you - where most trains are MG anyway?)
It happened again! Southern Railway’s railway coaches allotted to the TVC (Trivandrum) division are falling apart on the slightest provocation, not unlike how an Indian hatchback car crumbles when it makes the slightest contact with an external stationary object.
The latest incident which made headlines all over the country was when a sleeper coach of the 16316 Trivandrum Kochuveli – Bangalore Express crumbled into itself and then broke into two pieces with one end pointing up towards the skies while it was being shunted (attached) to the rest of the train. Fortunately there was no one inside the coach and even more fortunately it was not running on a mainline at 110 kph.
A huge railway carriage made of iron and steel which was supposed to be “anti-telescopic” and protecting people (72 atleast) traveling in it, on being pushed against another carriage just crumbled like a beer can smashed against a drunk forehead. Tells a lot, doesn’t it?
If you know some things about how Indian Railways works, you will know that the “serial” number painted on the upper exterior of coaches actually mean something. The first two numbers indicate the year in which the coach was manufactured while the remaining indicate the type of coach and the manufactured serial number.
The coach number of the ill-fated coach of 16316 was
89232. Note the first two numbers, which say 89, meaning that the coach was manufactured in
1989. This makes the coach a whopping 25 years old! Many of you reading this are not as old as that coach was. And what is more, there are many such “senior citizens” still running the length and breadth of the country carrying thousands unsuspecting passengers on their rusted bottoms.
However, it is the Southern Railway, or to be specific its Thiruvananthapuram (TVC) and Palakkad (PGT) divisions, or the state of Kerala, Mangalore City and the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu included which are accorded with the unenviable honor of having become the old-age homes of railway coaches. It is no shock when a minister himself said that
75% of coaches in Kerala are over 25 years old!
This incident is just the latest in a series of similar incidents all of which took place in the state in the past couple of months. Coaches are falling apart while starting, stopping, running, pushed, pulled… It has been long known that Indian Railways dumps its oldest and most useless coaches in Kerala. Almost all trains in the state run with these ancient coaches which carry with them the legacy of decades gone by. And on the way, some of these coaches naturally die of old age. Here are some of those obituaries that happened in Kerala in the past few months:
A Gallery of Senior Citizen and Rotten Coaches on Southern Railway (SR)
Before and After: Picture of the 89232 coach that was damaged in the shunting accident, once upon a time (2013) while it was still in one piece. The coach was part of the consist of the same Bangalore – Kochuveli train.
This coach of Southern Railway and Trivandrum Division was manufactured in 1998, but look at it’s decrepit, dirty and rundown condition.
A 2 tier AC coach made in 1990. A friend who traveled in this coach was talking about cobwebs and sand coming through the AC vents and horrible noise and dust inside the coach. Remember, you pay a premium for 2AC.
Another Grandfather Coach made in 1989, proud possession of the Trivandrum division and part of the 16316/16315 Kochuveli – Bangalore Express again.
This is a supposedly 1st class coach
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Lap of luxury amd clean trains in India...
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Luggage handling, a la WWII
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Look at where you are - then stop chest beating and bad mouthing the Chinese. Know your place....
