Last week, as the world mourned the 2,800 people who died in the twin tower tragedy in New York, we had our own moment of grief. The Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express somersaulted off an 86-year-old bridge in Bihar. Over 100 people died, some in their sleep.

Was it sabotage as Railways Minister Nitish Kumar has alleged or was it an accident born of negligence? It will be some time before the report by the Commissioner of Railway Safety is ready. But there is little reason to be optimistic. After the accident at Gaisal in West Bengal in 1999, the government sanctioned Rs 17,000 crore for a special Railway Safety Fund. Has the money been wisely spent?

As those who have travelled by it know, the Rajdhani Express is the flagship of the Indian Railways and a staple of middle-class travel. A loss of confidence in it as well as in the Indian Railways is inevitable.

Cutting through the welter of accusations and counter-accusations we focus this week on how prepared we are to step into the era of super-fast trains. It is a pertinent question because the railways is a source of both pride and despair. Trains are the most important means of passenger transport in India, with 13 million people using them each day. At the same time, the enormous potential of the Indian Railways has not been fully realised thanks to the inefficiencies that characterise state enterprise.

For us the accident was especially poignant because Senior Photographer Saibal Das was travelling on the same train. He had just gone off to sleep when he heard a great rattle, a sound that will stay with him forever. His carriage turned turtle and a few moments later he found himself on a window-pane, his shirt soaked in blood. Since he was on leave he had only two rolls in his camera, but he showed great presence of mind to get some of the earliest pictures of the horrific accident.

As rescue teams tried to save the dying, there was chaos and mismanagement. Says Das: "There was no water, no food, no first aid, no railway official to help us.'' But, he adds, among the survivors were some heroes too, ordinary people pitted against extraordinary odds. As always they reaffirm our belief in humanity.

(Aroon Purie)