SNTF General Manager: “30 Billion centimes (DA) loss incurred by Boudouaou train collision”

“The national railway network management system has reached its limits and needs to be quickly modernized”, said the Director General of the national railway company (SNTF), Yacine Bendjaballah, during an interview with the channel 3 of the Algerian Radio.

In the aftermath of the collision which occurred, September 24 on Saturday afternoon at Boudouaou (west of Boumerdes province), the General Manager of the SNTF admits that “such an accident was  avoidable, provided the delays in completing the modern infrastructure were settled and the combined modern technology to  avert it  was set in place”. 

The circumstances behind the accident, he said, are still difficult to determine, raising once again the absence of a train remote signaling system, “which does not exclude, he added, a human error to be behind the Boudouaou train collision”.

Mr Bendjaballah explained that these means comprise in particular an electronic system for remotely locating trains (CMSMs) with each other, which, he said, would further help increase the rate of two routes. He said at the moment it is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of the train accident, which left one dead and 196 injured. 

He also admitted that “the current management system of the pace of passing a railroad train, set at every 15 minutes has reached its limits”, because of the absence of an up to date train detection system.

Mr. Bendjaballah also recalled that the SNTF currently transports some 30 million passengers a year with on focus the goal of hiking this number to 60 million by 2020. 

The latest report of the Director of Health and Population of the province announced the death (the driver of the train) and the injuring of 196 passengers, including six (6) who were transferred to specialized hospitals in Algiers, and are always under medical supervision.