Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/business/railways-railway-board-directs-zones-to-reduce-unnecessary-paperwork-for-loco-pilots-to-enhance-safety-3431319/
Publisher: Financial Express
In an effort to enhance the safety of Indian Railways services, the Railway Board on Tuesday (March 19) directed all its zones to reduce paperwork of drivers and assistant drivers while they are operating trains.
While elaborating on the paperwork of railways drivers, a senior railway official said, “Loco pilot and assistant loco pilot have to maintain a memo book and an engine log book. While the memo book is a personal diary in which they note down details such as arrival-departure of each station, speed restrictions at various points, guards’ details and all other things which they feel like while operating the train.”
The official also explained that the engine log book serves as an official record that locomotive engineers fill out upon completing their shifts. In it, the railway drivers document their shift timings and any other issues encountered while operating the train.
Locomotive engineers emphasise the importance of maintaining these personal records. They use them as a reference in case of disputes arising later regarding any issues encountered during their shifts, providing supporting documentation for their accounts.
“So many things happen during train operations and we do not remember everything. So while the loco pilot drives the train, the assistant loco pilot makes a note of all these things in the memo book. Normally, he tries to do so when the train stops at any station but sometimes he has to do it during the running of the train as well,” a loco pilot said.
What is the Railway Board seeking?
According to the experts associated with train operations, the Railway Board is urging zones to adopt a streamlined format for driver documentation, focusing only on essential information.
At present, there is no standardised format due to which the assistant loco pilots often include unnecessary details. A retired chief loco inspector from a railway division told PTI that recently many divisions have initiated a practice where drivers record station names and scheduled arrival and departure times before their shifts begin. This helps them save time and maintain focus.
Railways lax approach
It may be noted that the Railway Board had earlier issued a similar directive two years ago, however, due to some departments’ lax approach, it found it necessary to reiterate the instruction.
“PCEEs (Principal Chief Electrical Engineers) of zonal railways are again advised to review and ensure that all paperwork with LPs/ALPs which is redundant during loco operation has been stopped and removed from their duties,” the Board letter dated March 18 stated.
Furthermore, the letter stated, “Further LPs/ALPs should be counselled and monitored to undertake essential paperwork only when they are not engaged in any critical activity during loco operation including observation of signal aspects etc.”
