Title - Preliminary trials of anti-collision system successful: Mittal

Jammu: Preliminary field trials of Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) in South Central Railways have been successful, Chairman Railway Board Vinnay Mittal said on Monday.

"We are experimenting with TCAS in South Central Railways. Preliminary field trials in South Central Railways have been successful," he told reporters after reviewing work on under-construction railway infrastructure in Katra, the base camp of Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine.

Mittal said, "it is GPS based system...We are trying to spread the trials to a distance from 150 to 200 km and cover many more locomotives and establish its efficiency."

"We are also looking into protective warning system which is an European based system," he said, adding it is a cheaper technology.

He was replying to a volley of questions about the collision of trains and accidents and safety measures taken by the railways in this regard.

A safety device designed to prevent train accidents, TCAS is based on a combination of railway signalling data with radio communications, global position, radio frequency identification devices, software and logic.

Field trials were conducted last month in real time on a track near Tandur station. Two TCAS-equipped locomotives operated a series of test runs, simulating scenarios including head-on collisions, rear-end collisions, and SPAD (Signal Passed at Danger).