1 line, 2 trains: waiting to happen

Consider these:

• You can get cell phone signals at both these stations but the Railways here reposes its faith in a relic of the Raj: a mechanical apparatus called the Block Instrument, key to communication between all single-line stations.

Cranked up manually, this communicates with the Block Instrument at the next station and only when the line is clear, generates a token for each train. This is then given to the driver who hands it over at the next station where he gets another token for the next stretch.

• At 9 pm on Tuesday, almost 10 hours after the accident, the Block Instrument at both Bhangala and Mirthal were lying dead—both broke down at 1.10 pm on Monday.

• Said Bhangala Assistant Station Master Amarjit Singh, who was on leave when the accident occurred: ‘‘We can’t even communicate to the nearest station Mirthal as the system is down.’’

• V K Malviya, officiating in Singh’s absence since Monday, was nowhere to be seen.

• Because the Block Instrument was down, what the Jammu Tawi and the Pathankot drivers got was ‘‘Paper Line Clearance’’ (PLC) slips after the two stations communicated over wireless sets, around ten minutes before they collided.

• Officials said that any time, there are ‘‘seven to eight’’ messages with different rail numbers being sent over the wireless. In this confusion, the PLC could have been issued in error.

• About 9 km from Bhangala is Mirthal which gave the PLC to the Ahmedabad-bound Jammu Tawi Express.

• Station Master Ram Lal was nowhere to be seen and the police party which came to look for him had to be content with his address and phone number. But the sight was revealing:

• At both Bhangala and Mirthal, the only Railway officials with cellphones were those who had rushed to the site preparing for the Minister’s visit.

Not one comment was made by the Minister on any of the above.

Of course, there was an ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 lakh each to the nearest kin of those dead, Rs 15,000 each to those with serious injuries and Rs 5,000 to those with minor injuries.

There was some consolation, though: the toll could have been much higher, Railway officials said, had the Jammu Tawi driver Harjinder Singh not applied the brakes in time—the Pathankot driver didn’t get time to react.

‘‘It was sheer hell, I can’t put into words the sight of an engine coming straight towards us,’’ said Harjinder, whose condition worsened by evening.

Most of the bodies were extricated from the Pathankot coaches. A majority of the victims were from Pathankot and Jalandhar, said Paramjit Singh, DIG (Jalandhar Range).