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At least 70 killed in explosion 11.33 p.m. ET (334 GMT) August 1, 1999 http://www.foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/news/wires2/index.sml

NEW DELHI, India (AP)  A powerful explosion rocked a railroad station in eastern India early Monday, killing at least 70 passengers traveling in two trains, Press Trust of India news agency reported.

PTI said 135 passengers were injured.

The blast ripped through five cars of a train that had stopped in the station and six coaches of another train that was passing through Gaisan railroad station in North Dinajpur, 550 miles east of New Delhi, PTI said.

The engine of one of the trains was thrown onto an adjacent railroad track by the impact of the explosion. Other details were not immediately known.

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), August 02, 1999

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At least 50 feared killed in India rail blast-PTI

NEW DELHI, Aug 2 - At least 50 people were feared killed and 25 injured when a large explosion damaged two trains in northeast India on Monday, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said.

PTI later said 70 people were killed and 135 injured in the explosion that rocked the Abodh-Assam express and the Brahmaputra Mail trains at the Gaisan station, some 80 km (50 miles) from New Jalpaiguri in the eastern state of West Bengal.

New Jalpaiguri is 500 km (312 miles) north of Calcutta.

Railway officials told Reuters in Guwahati, the main city of the northeastern state of Assam, that 40 people were killed in the blast. No other details were immediately available.

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), August 02, 1999.

Monday, August 2, 1999 Published at 03:47 GMT 04:47 UK

Scores die in Indian rail blast

A massive explosion has ripped through an Indian railway station, killing up to 70 people.

The blast wrecked two trains travelling in opposite directions through Gaisan, West Bengal.

Officials suspect a radical Islamic group active on the Nepal-Indian border may be behind the explosion.

More than 100 people are reported to have been injured, many of them seriously.

Doctors say the death toll may rise.

The incident happened at Gaisan, 80km from the city of Jalpaiguri.

Railway officials said one explosion derailed a train bound for Assam, tipping it against another train heading for Delhi.

It is thought this was followed by another blast.

A BBC correspondent in Calcutta says officials say that if it was an attack, it was exceptionally well-organised and well-timed.

-- looks like terrorism (they're@at.war), August 02, 1999.

"Officials now say a signal failure may have caused both trains to be on the same track, PTI reported."

...

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Hundreds feared killed in train collision in eastern India 6.39 a.m. ET (1040 GMT) August 2, 1999

By Wasbir Hussain, Associated Press

GAUHATI, India (AP)  Two express trains collided head-on at a station in eastern India today, crumpling into fiery, twisted wreckage and killing hundreds of passengers, according to railway officials and news reports.

United News of India reported at least 250 passengers were killed and more than 200 injured. Press Trust of India said as many as 500 people may have been killed and more than 1,000 injured.

A team of doctors and paramedics  including medical students from a nearby college  rushed to the site. But rescuers were having difficulty cutting through the mangled wreckage to get to the victims, news reports said.

Jyoti Basu, a government official in West Bengal, where the accident took place, said 156 bodies had been pulled from the wreckage. "The death toll is likely to be much more,'' he was quoted as saying by UNI.

Officials at the railway headquarters in Gauhati said a fire engulfed several coaches, burning to death some of the 2,500 passengers aboard the two trains. All four of the engineers from the trains were killed, the news agencies reported.

Rail officials initially believed the accident was caused by an explosion, but later said a collision was to blame. Officials now say a signal failure may have caused both trains to be on the same track, PTI reported.

The collision of the Brahmputra Mail train from Gauhati and the Awadh-Assam Express from New Delhi occurred in Gaisan Station, a small town rail stop in West Bengal state  310 miles west of Gauhati and near India's border with Bangladesh  at 1:30 a.m. local time today (4 p.m. EDT Sunday).

The seriously injured were taken to civilian and military hospitals in the towns of Kishanganj and Islampur, UNI reported. The railway minister, Nitish Kumar, left New Delhi to travel to the area by plane and helicopter.

The area is more than a 14-hour drive by car from the nearest cities, Calcutta and Gauhati, and its remoteness hampered access and accurate information.

Robin Kalita, a Northeast Frontier Railway spokesman in Gauhati, told The Associated Press that seven coaches of the first train and five of the second had been ripped apart. The Indian government had no immediate comment.

The engine of the Awadh-Assam Express was blasted into the air by the impact and fell onto an adjacent railroad track, PTI reported.

Train accidents are common in India, which has the world's largest railway network under one management, with more than 14,000 trains carrying 12 million people daily. Officials say some 400 accidents occur every year. Sixty percent are blamed on human error.

The worst previous train wreck in India took place near New Delhi in 1995, killing 358 people.

But rail officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, had earlier said they suspected militant groups from neighboring Assam state of bombing the trains.

Several guerrilla organizations are active in India's northeast. The largest, the United Liberation Front of Assam, seeks independence from India. Militants from the Bodo tribe in Assam, who seek greater autonomy or a state of their own within the Indian federation, have attacked rail lines in the past to press their claims.

-- Stan Faryna (info@giglobal.com), August 02, 1999.

Don't mean to sound heartless here but -- doesn't this happen all the time in India/Pakistan? The death counts vary but it seems there's a huge crash every other month or so. Their trains are always overloaded. Sad.

-- not (going@by.train), August 02, 1999.

8/2/99 -- 5:14 AM

Hundreds killed in head-on train collision in eastern India

GAUHATI, India (AP) - Two trains collided head-on in eastern India today, crumpling into twisted wreckage and killing hundreds of passengers, news reports said.

The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that at least 250 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured. Press Trust of India said officials feared as many as 500 people may have been killed and more than 1,000 injured.

Robin Kalita, a Northeast Frontier Railway spokesman in Gauhati, said the official toll stood at 89 dead and 153 injured, but the count was expected to rise.

Rail officials initially believed the accident was caused by an explosion, but later said a collision was to blame. The BBC reported that one of the trains was carrying military equipment, including explosives that may have caused the trains to catch fire.

Officials said they believed a signal failure may have caused both trains to be on the same track, the BBC reported.

Medical teams reached the site and the seriously injured were taken to civilian and military hospitals in the towns of Kishanganj and Islampur, United News of India reported. The railway minister, Nitish Kumar, left New Delhi to travel to the area by plane and helicopter.

The collision between the Brahmputra Mail train from Gauhati and the Awadh-Assam Express from New Delhi occurred in Gaisan Station, a small-town rail stop in West Bengal state, 310 miles west of Gauhati at 1:30 a.m. local time today (4 p.m. EDT Sunday).

The area is more than a 14-hour drive by car from the nearest cities, Calcutta and Gauhati, and its remoteness hampered access and accurate information.

Earlier, Kalita, the railway spokesman, told The Associated Press that seven coaches of the first train and five of the second had been ripped apart. The Indian government had no immediate comment.

The engine of the Awadh-Assam Express was blasted into the air by the impact and fell onto an adjacent railroad track, PTI reported.

Train accidents are common in India, which has the world's largest railway network under one management, with more than 14,000 trains carrying 12 million people daily. Officials say some 300 accidents occur every year.

The worst previous train wreck in India took place near New Delhi in 1995, killing 358 people.

Rail officials who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity had earlier said they suspected militant groups from neighboring Assam state of bombing the trains.

Several guerrilla organizations are active in India's northeast. The largest, the United Liberation Front of Assam, seeks independence from India. Militants from the Bodo tribe in Assam, who seek greater autonomy or a state of their own within the Indian federation, have attacked rail lines in the past to press their claims.

-- death train (it@is.sad), August 02, 1999.

Signal failure caused the collision - hmmmmn. What caused the signals to fail? Sabotage? Maybe. Y2K-induced failure? Most likely not. Simple "accident" or "user-error"? Probably.

But we won't see any signal failures here in the US. Nothing here will screw up trains or routing. After all, at least one railroad has already declared itself compliant, so all of them must be fixed, right?

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), August 02, 1999.