CHENNAI: Southern Railway has decided to train its motormen on how to use the joystick type throttle in three-phase suburban trains, after investigations into the recent train accident at Beach railway station revealed that the motorman had mistakenly left the throttle lever at a mild accelerating position – a little forward before the resting position.
As the throttle was still in acceleration mode, by the time the motorman realised the mistake, the braking distance was too short, and the train crashed into the dead-end platform.
The new three phase suburban train has a joystick control which the motorman should push forward for acceleration and push it back for braking, unlike the throttle knob on conventional EMUs in which the motorman knows the throttle position as he needs to keep applying considerable pressure to accelerate.
According to sources, the joystick control is easier to operate “just with the touch of a thumb”. However, moving it is so smooth that sometimes the motormen miss the resting position of the throttle lever when the train is moving slowly and during deceleration.
In order to avoid such accidents in the future, Southern Railway has decided to train the motormen in using the throttle and avoiding the procedures that could act as a distraction while operating trains at stations with dead ends.
The motormen will be educated on the need to be careful about the position of the throttle and a few other procedures that should be followed while operating the suburban trains in stations like Beach and Moore Market Complex where the platforms have dead ends. They have been told to run the train at 10kmph while approaching dead-end platforms,” a railway official said.
Amid the induction of the new high-capacity three-phase rakes for suburban services, the accident at the Beach station has come as an eye-opener for motormen, design teams at coach factories as well as the railways.
“There is a possibility of a change in design as a precaution while producing rakes in the future. Indicator lights or voice-based systems could be included in the control panels to alert motormen on the position of the throttle,” the official added.
