The loco running staff of Indian Railways has been demanding a six-hour duty since 1948, says loco running staff union
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NAGARA GOPAL
The loco pilots who have been on an agitation against the delay in filling up vacancies have said that the IndiGo controversy closely mirrors the long-standing issues faced by loco pilots in Indian Railways.
For decades, railway crew members have been demanding a scientifically designed working atmosphere, including a maximum of two continuous night duties, rational duty hours aligned with human physiology, proper and adequate rest after every duty and weekly rest, and roster planning based on sleep science and circadian rhythm.
In a representation, the All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA) flagged the issue of crew fatigue and the long-overdue reforms in crew management for trains and railways, urging the need to draw lessons from the recent IndiGo crisis, which crippled air travel across the country.
“Whether in the skies or on the rails, crew fatigue directly translates into dangers to passenger safety. Regulations based on modern sleep science are not mere ‘union demands’ to skip from duty. But, they are demands of “safety standards,” said the representation.
KC James, secretary general, AILRSA, said that the loco running staff of Indian Railways has been demanding six hours’ duty since 1948. They went on a strike in August 1973 and entered into an agreement for an upper limit of 10 hours. But still it is a dream.
Need of the hour
The urgent need is to adopt a modern Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS)-based framework, which the Centre adopted in 2023 and notified revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) which was to come into effect from November 2025, for loco pilots with 6 hours daily duty limit along with adoption of circadian-science based crew rosters, limiting continuous night-duties to two, predictable rest periods with 16 hours after every duty and weekly rest in addition to daily rest, and fatigue-risk modeling in crew scheduling etc.
Published on December 9, 2025