Stronger Tracks, Better Maintenance and Advanced Monitoring Systems Making Railway Journeys Safer and Earning Passenger Trust Across the Nation

• Indian Railways (IR) — world's 4th largest network — moves >2 crore passengers/day on >25,000 trains across 14,000+ passenger services daily; safety is now framed by Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw as "a matter of public trust, not a technical metric".
• Systemic safety push centres on heavier 60 kg rails, Long Welded Panels (LWPs), Ultrasonic Flaw Detection (USFD), GPS-based Fog Safety Devices (FSDs) and the indigenous Kavach ATP system.
• UPSC relevance: GS-III (Infrastructure, S&T), GS-II (Governance/Public Service Delivery), Prelims (schemes, numbers, agencies).