Monitor: The Indian press reacts to the West Bengal train crash

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TRAIN DISASTERS occurring in quick succession, with the casualties becoming larger every time, have eroded the faith of the public in rail safety. Matters have reached such a pass that passengers and those who see them off, along with the others depending on the Railways for the safe transport of their goods, have to keep their fingers crossed until the trains reach their destination safely. Unless the railway rids itself of this very poor image, it will soon find itself being labelled as a high-risk public utility service of the last resort.

The Hindu Online

VIRTUALLY EVERY month brings with it a grisly toll in rail casualties. Each has been labelled the "worst ever" of its kind and promises of strong remedial action made as the media splashes pictures of gore and grief. We have been through this endless cycle of agony - mangled bodies, twisted metal, mourning relatives. An inquiry will, of course, be held and its findings consigned to the dusty shelves of bureaucratic apathy. Public amnesia will ensure that after the token compensation is paid to the next of kin, nothing will move until the next horror.

The Times of India

IT IS another matter that Mr Nitish Kumar may have acted differently had this accident occurred three months later and he were still in office. But the possibility of the ministerial gesture moving the railways into a higher safety gear is not over-bright. Indian Railways may just shrug and carry on, leaving passengers weighing the probabilities of reaching destination or death.

The Statesman

THIS TIME, as every time before, there seems to have been a peculiar lag in communication. Hammers and hacksaws, with which the first rescue teams arrived, were grotesquely out of place where cranes and other sophisticated equipment were needed to prise open mangled coaches and retrieve the dead and injured. There will be no count made of those who died hours after the accident because they were not rescued in time.

The Telegraph