Stone pelting, overcrowding raise safety fears on Kerala trains

I t’s 5.30pm. Several people, many of them women, with their bags slung over shoulders, sprint across traffic and dive into northbound trains seconds before departure at Thiruvananthapuram Central station. These daily commuters risk it all — packed platforms, overcrowded coaches, footboard travel, drunk passengers, and now, stone pelting.Increasing incidents of stone pelting at trains, including at premium Vande Bharat Express, and passenger harassment show that railways is struggling to ensure passenger security in a sustained manner despite repeated claims of deploying Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel and installing CCTVs.In recent incidents, a six-year-old girl, who was sleeping alongside her parents on the floor of a general compartment of Palaruvi Express, was taken to another coach and sexually assaulted by a Kollam native in Thenmala last Thursday; a woman was severely injured in the face in March after stones were thrown at Executive Express in Kannur. In April, a man standing at the door of a train was pulled down and robbed at Aluva station. In Nov 2025, a 19-year-old girl was seriously injured after a drunk man kicked her out of a general coach on Kerala Express. Though it is easier to crack down on crimes against passengers in trains and at stations, railways is largely at a loss when it comes to stone pelting, though its force has managed to arrest many of the culprits. In 2025-26, 40 stone-pelting incidents were reported in Thiruvananthapuram division, out of which 17 resulted in damage to trains and eight caused injuries to passengers. Thirty-two offenders — 14 adults and 18 juveniles — were apprehended in connection with them.Knee-jerk reactionThere is often only a knee-jerk reaction every time a serious incident occurs. RPF resorted to widespread breath analyser tests on passengers soon after the girl was kicked out by a drunk passenger. The test was discontinued.Similarly, railways started patrolling vulnerable stretches and launched awareness campaigns at neighbourhoods close to tracks where stone pelting was reported. But passenger associations say that the outreach may not last long.Loco pilots say that stone-pelting incidents come out when passengers are affected. Though the number of incidents is higher and riskier to passengers, railways is yet to come out with a concrete plan to prevent them.Vande Bharat trains are the main targets. Their windowpanes are shattered frequently on all three trains. Senior consultant psychiatrist Dr C J John said: “A component of jealousy and anger is the reason to target premium trains like Vande Bharat. It’s like the tendency to make scratch marks on high-end cars at parking lots.”John said that these people are unhappy that travellers are moving in premium comfort, but what they do not realise is that the money paid by these passengers is adding to the overall improvement of other trains and services. Vande Bharat trains plying in Kerala reportedly boast some of the highest occupancy rates in the country, often exceeding 170-180%.Then there is also a tendency to do mischief that is not permitted and mischief for fun, he said.Probably because of this sentiment, Vande Bharat trains are the ones that are targeted by stones the most across the country. In reply to a question in Lok Sabha in 2023, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that railways incurred a loss of more than Rs 55 lakh due to stone pelting at Vande Bharat trains across the country since 2019.As roads are congested due to high vehicle density and sluggish road widening work, several people depend on trains to commute. It is estimated that approximately more than 3 lakh people travel bytrains every day across the state. But RPF strength for Kerala is less than 800, which is woefully inadequate to manage a periodic surge in passenger traffic during festivals, holidays and long weekends.Vacancies are filled, but there is no move to increase the strength to match passenger surge. Rule says that there should be one RPF personnel for every 300 passengers which means there should be more than 1,000 RPF on duty every day.Dakshin Railway Employees Union central vice-president B Susobhanan said: “There is a more than 10% increase in passenger traffic. We are seeing unusual crowds at major railway stations such as Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam like we used to see in metro city stations. Platforms fill up fast daily and stations do not have capacity to handle the crowd. Railways is not equipped to handle this.”Track congestion and rake shortage prevent railways from operating more trains. Consequently, swelling crowd is another risk faced by passengers because many, including families, try to board reserved coaches because it’s impossible to get into unreserved coaches. Railwaysfaces a dilemma of how to remove them.“Most of the trains are at night and if the ticket checker follows rules, then families will get stranded in some small wayside station. That’s a risk,” said an official.As crowd control at stations becomes increasingly important, RPF is unable to spare staff to travel on trains and patrol stretches where stone throwing has been reported. Moreover, only major stations have an RPF presence, even though smaller stations also attract passengers because the state is largely an urban sprawl.Less people on groundSources said that incidents that impact security of passengers happen because railways reduced the number of people on ground — the maintenance staff who used to be present at every 3km, ticket checkers at stations, TTEs on trains.An official said that fencing along the tracks will come up when speed is increased to 130-180kmph and there will be CCTVs at all stations and in trains. However, it may take time to bring in access control like in metro stations but it may be tried out when redeveloped stationsare ready, he said.A loco pilot, who has seen his colleagues face stone pelting, said that awareness would act as a deterrent and patrolling would instil fear. “There are many near-miss cases showing that more trains are targeted. Arrests are being made. But that’s not enough. Often people do not know it could lead to death.”He said that people who sit and drink near tracks at night and those who want to create mischief throw stones at trains as it is difficult to find out because the trackside is largely unmonitored.Krishna Kumar P of Thrissur Railway Passengers Association said that “the railways should educate people about the dangers of stone pelting and should introduce automatic doors. Many people travel standing near the door because the coaches are crowded and it’s hot and sultry during summer.”“All passenger trains should be upgraded to 16-car MEMU services. Introduce AC chair cars and add maximum feasible number of coaches to existing trains. Even with highway work completed in the north, people prefer trains for their comfort and convenience.Railways should accelerate track doubling and signal modernisation to run more trains,” he said.Kavya M, a frequent traveller, said that women’s safety is a concern due to fewer trains and overcrowded coaches. “There have been instances of men causing problems by staring or touching women. Generally, people warn us to avoid trains that tend to get overcrowded. Many say that TTEs don’t intervene in cases of overcrowding. And most of the time, passengers don’t know what to do if a TTE doesn’t help. There is a severe lack of awareness about the chain of command people can approach if an officer doesn’t assist.”A railway official said RPF runs sustained awareness campaigns to sensitise the public regarding the dangers associated with such acts — seriousinjuries and death of passengers.“Outreach programmes are being conducted among schoolchildren, youth and residents living in trackside areas as well as at places of community gathering such as temples and churches. RPF is in touch with residents, shopkeepers and community leaders to foster cooperation, gather actionable inputs and discourage anti-social activities. Periodic coordination meetings were held and collaboration was ensured with the Govt Railway Police and local police through joint patrolling, intelligence sharing and prompt action,” the official said.Focus is given to counselling vulnerable youth in trackside areas with the support of parents, teachers and local authorities to prevent their involvement. Public announcements at high-risk locations raised awareness of threats to passenger safety and railway property. Public cooperation has helped identify offenders and improve detection rates. Steps are also being taken to recover costs for damage caused by stone pelting to strengthen legal action and deterrence, the official said.