No railings between tracks: CR's U-turn

Tired of the Central Railway’s (CR) evasiveness, the railway passenger associations, demanding installation of railings between rail lines near platforms to prevent people from crossing tracks, have written a letter to the Railway Board to intervene.

Tired of the Central Railway’s (CR) evasiveness, the railway passenger associations, demanding installation of railings between rail lines near platforms to prevent people from crossing tracks, have written a letter to the Railway Board to intervene.

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A couple of days before the recently held Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee (ZRUCC) meeting, on June15, the commuter representatives sent the letter.

“For long, the CR authorities have been disregarding our request. So we approached the Board,” said S Gupta, ZRUCC member.

“The CR general manager Kul Bhushan had said they are looking at this demand positively. Now they are refusing to install railings,” said another member of ZRUCC.

Sources in the CR say with foot over bridges available for people to cross, railings are futile. Nearly 12 years ago in an accident at Byculla, commuters were injured when they fell on sharp railings following a train collision. The fences were then removed from the suburban line.

“Presently there are no plans to install railings,” said V Malegaonkar, chief public relations officer, CR.

The Western Railway has installed metal fences with blunt ends between tracks, as sharp ones injured commuters who put their feet out of trains.