The Southern Railway on Tuesday withdrew its proposal to introduce single crew on end-to-end basis on high-speed trains such as Vande Bharat, Tejas and Shatabdi Expresses.
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The decision to call off the plan to have a single beat crew comprising a Loco Pilot and Assistant Loco Pilot from the originating station to the destination on these trains was taken after the Southern Railway Mazdoor Union led by its general secretary N. Kanniah raised objections by flagging safety issues and other difficulties the Loco Pilots would have to face in long duration of working hours.
Acting on the instructions of the General Manager, train operating officials had sent out a circular that single crew single on end-to-end basis was planned in Train No 20665/20666 Chennai Egmore-Tirunelveli Vande Bharat Express, Train No 20643/20644 Chennai Central-Coimbatore Vande Bharat Express, Train No. 22671/22672 Chennai Egmore-Madurai MS-MDU Express and Train No 12243/12244 Chennai Central-Coimbatore Shatabdi Express.
A section of the Loco Pilots and trade unions expressed serious concern over the move as it could affect safety and also put the Loco Pilots to a lot of difficulties as they would not be in a position to have food and attend nature’s call during long working hours without any break in the high-speed trains.
On Monday, Southern Railway convened an urgent meeting with SRMU representatives. While the Principal Chief Operating Manager N. Sreekumar explained the reasons for the proposed single crew beat and requested the union to offer their views, Mr. Kanniah made it clear that the single crew beat system could not be implemented in the interest of safety of passengers and Loco Pilots.
Violation of rules
He said that going by the Hours of Employment and Period of Rest (HOER) rules, 8 hours of a duty involving continuous action for more than 6 hours was classified as “intensive”.
In the proposed single crew beat the total working hours was 7 hours 50 minutes and in that the inaction hours was only 18 minutes as the Vande Bharat Express had 6 stoppages with a duration of 2-3 minutes. Hence, the move was in violation of HOER norms, he said.
Mr. Kanniah said there would be no time for the Loco Pilots to attend nature’s call and have food in the proposed system which would have an adverse impact on their performance.
“Almost all Senior Loco Pilots of Mail/Express Trains are above 50 years of age and prone to many health issues like diabetes, hypertension etc and hence the continuous working of over 7 hours and 50 minutes will increase their fatigue. Also operating the train continuously in a sitting posture could lead to back and neck pain,” he said.
After the meeting, Southern Railway informed its decision the proposal to introduce a single crew beat system for Vande Bharat, Tejas and Shatabdi Express trains would not be processed and the existing working pattern of crew deployment would continue, railway sources said.
