What the shortage of railway employees means for the life of a loco driver

As a debate rages on about the working conditions of railway loco drivers, here is a peek into their lives

A 38-year-old locomotive pilot from Mumbai has a bittersweet feeling about the festival season, starting with Raksha Bandhan next month. He is thrilled that his sister is coming over from Jabalpur, but disappointed that he will be working on the day of the festival.
 

“My sister’s husband lost his job during Covid, so my sister had to start working. They have saved some money to be able to visit us in Mumbai and they will stay till Ganesh Chaturthi. But, like several other loco pilots, I am working on the Raksha Bandhan day,” he says.

 

The working conditions of loco pilots came to light after the Kanchanjunga Express accident in West Bengal last month. A number of preliminary reports suggested that the accident took place because the driver, who died in the accident, ignored the signals and breached the speed limit.
 

Experts, however, flagged concerns, many of which are shared by a number of loco drivers Business Standard spoke to. Not many agreed to be named in this story.
 

Working conditions
 

Unlike most other people, especially those in government jobs, loco pilots do not get fixed days off. Be it a festival or a

national holiday, several of them would need to report to work regardless.

 

“Forget festivals, we sometimes do not get leave even if a close relative dies. More importantly, how can we get proper or regular offs if there are barely enough people to do the job,” says another loco pilot.
 

The shortage of personnel came to the fore when Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in the Rajya Sabha last year that there were almost 315,000 vacant posts out of the total sanctioned strength.
 

It was highlighted further when Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said on July 7 that the INDIA bloc would speak in Parliament about the rights and working conditions of loco pilots. He also posted on X a video of his recent interaction with loco pilots at the New Delhi Railway Station.
 

On July 10, the railways minister posted on X to say the duty hours and working conditions were within the established norms. “Duty hours of loco pilots are carefully monitored. Rest is provided meticulously after trips… Only under exigencies, the trip duration exceeds the prescribed hours,” Vaishnav said.

 

The data provided by the government (Railway Year Book 2021-2022) shows that since 1990-91, when the railways had 1.65 million personnel, the number has gone down to 1.21 million in 2021-22. In the same period, the total track length increased by almost 18 per cent and the number of locomotives by 57 per cent.
 

Vaishnav, in his July 10 post on X, also spoke about the railways recruitment drive. “In the past few years, major recruitment exercise was completed and 34,000 running staff have been recruited. Recruitment process for 18,000 running staff is currently in process.”
 

Running duty
 

At the centre of the debate is the ‘running duty’, a loco pilot’s shift in which the locomotive is being driven. A number of loco pilots say the running duty is not always confined to eight hours.

“More importantly, the lack of a proper schedule and the frequency of our night shifts add to our problems,” says Murli Rane, a loco pilot stationed in Madhya Pradesh.
 

The railway ministry’s 2013 Report of the High Power Committee to Review the Duty Hours of Running and other Safety Related Categories of Staff recommended loco pilots work at most two nights in a row, citing an Indian Railways Design and Standards Organisation study.
 

The rigour of a loco pilot’s work is not limited to working hours. As one loco pilot says: “A lot of preparatory work is involved during and after the running time.”
 

“Preparatory work consists of handing over and taking charge of the train and reading the route’s caution orders alongside other technical duties. Then, we prepare, check and activate the engines, check the brakes through a brake-fail test, check the lights and oiling, and check that the logbook of defects has been attended to.”
 

“Even when we go home during the day, we do not get proper sleep, because we are also involved with household chores,” says a loco driver. “If anything happens due to no fault of ours, we are the ones who are targeted. Look at what happened in Morigaon (Assam). An elephant was hit by a train but the route was not an elephant corridor. Yet, people are asking for action against the loco pilot.”
 

God’s blessing
 

A number of loco pilots speak about the time they spend inside the cab, which is the driver’s compartment in a locomotive. It consists of starting the train, exchanging signals with the guard and station master, and piloting the engine. During the running, the loco pilot needs to control the speed of the train and the caution orders for the section, constantly check the overhead electrical wire to see that no part of it is hanging, and check the air pressure and brake power.  

 Source: Indian Railways Year Book 2021-22

“The temperature inside the engine is normally five to seven degrees more than the temperature outside. You can imagine the conditions during the heatwave. We have to constantly make the correct decisions. At times, the loco pilot has to stand for hours. There is a camera inside the cab, which monitors what we do,” says another loco driver.

The cab does not have a toilet. The drivers usually take loo breaks at stations.
 

“You can call it God’s blessings or our courage that loco pilots continue to function,” says one of them.