Namaskar,
This is means that it could relieve the Western Railways of nearly 25% of their passenger load. The WR presently caters to 39 lakh passengers everyday.
The MMRDA has further estimated that by 2025, the Metro's capacity will increase to 13.87 lakh passengers and by 2031, it will reach 16.99 lakh passengers.
"We hope that once the Metro comes into operation, it will drastically reduce the burden on the existing suburban rail system," a senior MMRDA official working on the project said.
He added that the MMRDA is also planning to integrate the Metro and the suburban network, by having interchange stations – where passengers can switch between the two networks – at five spots in the city – Churchgate, Mumbai Central, Mahalaxmi, CST and Dadar. "We are planning an interchange station connecting the Metro to the Suburban railway to passengers can jump from one system to another, based on their convenience," the official said.
The planning agency earlier this week invited suggestions and objections from citizens on the underground Metro project.
State's body blow to WR's elevated rail corridor
Wants Virar-Churchgate rail line to terminate at Mahalaxmi instead of Oval Maidan, railway officials say it will defeat the purpose
Posted On Monday, July 25, 2011 at 03:33:28 AM
|
It seems the Western Railway's (WR) ambitious multi-billion dollar elevated rail corridor project has received a death blow. The technical committee of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has termed the all-important Mahalaxmi to Oval Maidan leg 'not feasible'. What the state wants
The UD department has now forwarded the file to Western Railway to take a call on what they propose to do and the file is expected to reach WR bosses by end of this week. WR's Defence |
Dear all,This is a classic case of appearances are deceptive.Mumbai's local trains hardly exceed 60 kmph during a normal run, Western, Central, Harbour.So there is simply no point in getting trains capable of 130 kmph unless they are utilised on non stop Churchgate Virar or CST Dombivali, CST Panvel, etc.Instead of all this high capital intensive investments, all the Indian Railways need to do is to implement the Cyclical Time Table, as described below.This will improve turnaround by a third, thereby increasing effective speed by a third, increase capacity by a third, reduce congestion by a third, with almost nil spending.Even today, empty new rakes are lying parked beyond Dahanu, Bharuch, etc., giving the distinct impression, that there already is over saturation of rakes, and Western Railway, even Central Railway, should replace the old rakes instead of getting more and more and faster and faster redundant rakes, and giving commuters the false impression that these will improve their lot.If there is any clarification required, I am sure Shri Dipak Bhai GANDHI and his colleagues will be happy to provide.Below are excerpts from a study from last year.
Thanqx.Jagdeep DESAI+91 98 6922 7148For information>>>In 1977, the Minister of Railways Mr.Madhu Dandavate in response to a letter by Mr. Gandhi from J J Chambers informed that the "Western Railway have already implemented this suggestion to provide uniform pattern to all fast trains in regard to stoppages, except two fast trains –one from Borivali and one from Virar for historical reasons.".
The implementation of the uniform pattern was discontinued after 1981 for reasons not known
Year Work done in the year 1977
- The 'cyclic' pattern was introduced in October 1977 in the Western Railway which has provided a satisfactory and reliable service to the commuters of the Western Railway.
- The punctuality of peak hour services has been maintained at a satisfactory level and uniform commuter flows have been observed during the peak hours. But it was only continued till 1982.
1964
- The idea of change in time table was first raised in this year.
- The time table said that it served services every N minute and only 3-6 stations should be served in each cycle, thus the cycle keeps repeating. By doing this it will increase services by minimum 30% and traveling would be safe and comfortable.
1995
- As this pattern was discontinued in Western Railway Mr. Gandhi then wrote letters to the railway authorities and also filed petition but there were no proper replies from them.
- The Petition No. 1092 of 1995 said that, "The plan for the railway's time table by Court due to overcrowded trains and security hazards is being looked forward".
- He filed the PIL in 1995 and has continued fighting at a stretch of 15 years and still he is going further.
1997
- Later the Cyclical time table was started in the Habour Line from 1stAugust 1997.
- It ensured train availability at a uniform time interval and the trains will be available at a fixed frequency at different originating/terminating stations.
Interactions with Vivek Sahai?
Besides this the members of the Mumbai Suburban Railway Passengers' Association have written many letters regarding the introduction of the cyclic time table to different railway authorities and some are replied saying your request will be taken into consideration.
RLY'S OUR ONLY OPTION
TO
UNJAM MUMBAI
- Instead of Govt wasting time, money and energy on raising elevated rail & road corridors, sea links, water transport etc, it will be advisable to concentrate all efforts on optimization & rationalization of recently upgraded rail infrastructures under MUTP I & II that has the potential to give immediate relief to the city in respect of its twin problems of transport & pollution. The single largest factor to compel citizens to go for road transport is the hazardous rail journies which have claimed over 11000 lives and proved fatal for over 15000 Commuters during the last three years, inspite additional tracks & large no. of new rakes procured. If rail commuting were made safe for all commuters at all times of the day as is possible under Cyclic Time-Table explained below, there could be little doubt about bulk of road commuters switching over back to Rlys, being speedy, eco-friendly and economical. It must be realized that one additional suburban rail service has the potential to put off the road minimum 8500 private vehicles or 85 BEST Buses.
- RATIONALIZE SUB. OPERATIONS
- The upgraded rail potential is so huge that by just proper planning of its operations, it can not only solve today's problems almost overnight but satisfactorily meet our city's needs for the next 3 to 4 decades and give us an Reliable Suburban Rly.
- Mumbai's traffic volume and pattern have undergone such a sea change during the last about two decades that scheduling of trains on an Adhoc or historical basis as at present, packing commuters of 10 to 20 stations per service which gets jam packed twice or thrice its optimum rated capacity with those of only 3 to 5 stations is primarily responsible for such a heavy toll of Commuters. The situation is further accentuated with uneven frequencies, resulting in accident prone travels when too afar & waste of capacity when too close. It is simply senseless to clear recently grown heavy intrasuburban traffic through Churchgate / CST services which are jam packed with its own sector traffic. If this intrasuburban traffic is cleared by exclusive suburban shuttles available every10 to 12 mts. in both up & down directions from early morning till late night between Mahalaxmi & Virar on W. Rly & Dadar – Kalyan on CR, most of rail commuters hardships would be over. There is thus a dire necessity to revamp Suburban Rail operations in conformity with today's traffic needs and the provisions of law, not only in the interest of safety of commuters but also to save our city from further decay.
- The entire rail infrastructure has been created to clear traffic sectorwise with mid terminals developed at Dadar, Kurla, Thane, Diva, Dombivali on C. Rly and at Mahalaxmi, Bandra, Andheri, Goregaon, Borivali & Bhayander on W. Rly. If dedicated services, clearing only one sector traffic at one time are introduced as required by 5.57 of the Indian Rly. Act, clearing long distance commuters through super fast trains & short distance ones by slow trains, as shown in one illustrative Cyclic Time-Table annexed herewith & designed on the principles of Time Table construction as laid down under the Rly Rules, overcrowding in all trains would be reduced by 30 to 50% at all times from tomorrow In addition to substantially reduced load on each service, sector wise traffic clearance has one added advantage of yielding 30% more services with the same no. of rakes and tracks in the same time due to superfast and short distance services reaching back to starting terminals earlier.
- HUGE POTENTIAL
- OPTIMISE SERVICES
It is ridiculous to ply maximum possible services only during 3 hours each in the morning & evening, when suburban trains run overcrowded two to three times their optimum rated capacities from 6.00 a.m. to 12.00 mid night. Hence maximum no. of services should be plied right from early morning till late night, on both slow and fast corridors without withdrawing any rake from service during day time as done at present. Today the situation is such that often overcrowding during non office peak hours is worse than that during office hours in view of withdrawal of large no. of rakes from service between 10.00 a.m & 5.00 p.m. Prior to 1960, afternoon traffic was so thin that some rakes were withdrawn from service to conserve power. But today's scenario is totally different. Hence if this obsolete practice is given up, Rly's could provide from tomorrow totally about 4000 services (20 services/tracks per hour x 10 tracks x 20 hrs/day) at 3 minutes headway during the day as against only about 2700 plied now. There are no technical impediments since existing EMU rakes are certified to run continuously even for 20 hours a day, whereas their present average utilization is only for about 13 hours a day as per Rly. Board statistics.
- OPTIMISE RAKES
The Rly s. must move with the fast moving World. The existing high efficiency EMU rakes are certified to run at 100 Kmph. Yet presently services are scheduled to run at running timings slower than in 1937, wasting minimum of 30% better efficiency of the rakes. If the services are scheduled to ply at their certified running timings determined by Rly's Engineers, Churchgate to Virar fast service would take only 55 minutes as against 80 minutes taken today. This would not only help rlys. run minimum 25% more services with the same no. of rakes and tracks but city's commuters too would save millions of man hours every day.
- OPTIMISE TRACKS.
Suburban services are plied at 3 minutes headway since last about 4 decades on W. Rly. Since then Signaling systems have been upgraded to permit services to ply at 1½ minutes headway. Even if they were scheduled at 2 minutes headway, our city could have from tomorrow 6,000 services (30/track/hour x 10 tracks x 20 hours/day). With large no. of new rakes received and receivable in the near future, rakes are now no problem.
(4) MUMBAI AN IDEAL CITY
- If rail operations were rationalised & optimized as suggested above, our Rlys would be able to provide a safe rail travel for all its commuters at all times of the day both in up and down directions from any station to any station from tomorrow. In that scenario there could be little doubt about large no. of road commuters switching over to rail travels, being speedy, eco-friendly and economical. This is bound to reduce road traffic jams & city's air & noise pollution levels substantially to give relief to all Mumbaikars to make Mumbai one of the ideal cities of the world to live in, instead of being one of the worst as at present.
WIN WIN FOR ALL
1. Limited Loading: Since each service shall be loaded with commuters of only 3 to 5 stations only at any given time, commuting shall be safe for all commuters at all times. For fast corridor, this objective is achieved by skipping halts whereas on slow corridor it is attained through sequencing of services, shorter distance one just preceding the longer distance one, thus siphoning off bulk of shorter distance traffic from the longer distance trains.
Load of Commuters of:
- Only 4 stations on Andheri Slow Service with BA Service just preceding it.
- Only 5 stations on BVI Slow Service, with ADH just preceding it, siphoning off bulk of ADH sector commuters from BVI slow services.
- Only 4 stations on Virar Super Fast Service.
- Only 3 stations on BHY Super Fast Service.
- Only 3 stations on each of BVI & GMN Super Fast Services.
- Only intra Suburban Commuters on MX-VR Shuttles.
- Total Services: 4000 with potential for 6000 in the immediate future as against only about 2700 plied at present.
- Safer travel at all times, with assured 30 to 50% reduction in overcrowding in all trains at all times at all stations with immediate effect.
- 25 to 30% saving in travel time for long distance commuters (ADH to VR) through super fast services.
- Direct services without any changeover at any in between station for all commuters to go from any station to any station between CCG & VR/CST- Kalyan, the most gruesome necessity under present time-tables.
- Reverse journies, commuters for south (CST / CCG) compelled to go first to the North would be a matter of the past with assured safe entry from any station for every destination.
- BEST buses, whose average km running has been reduced by more than half of what it was 3 decades back would improve substantially with substantial reduction in road Vehicles.
- Standing demand for local transport in the city Rly's revenue will also shot up substantially.
It must be realized that our city is living on its seams. The authorities particularly the state government must therefore concentrate their efforts on a priority basis on optimization and rationalization of Mumbai's rail services before the situation goes out of control. Time at our disposal is extremely limited. It is a suggestion which is both cost and time effective recommended by the Rly, Board, universally acclaimed when tried last on W. Rly. and now satisfactorily in operation on Harbour Line since last 14 years.
From MUMBAI SUBURBAN RAILWAY PASSENGERS' ASSOCIATION
(DIPAK J. GANDHI)
CHAIRMAN.
Encl.: Illustrative Cyclic Time Table with design.
CYCLIC TIME – TABLE
Date:- 14.11.2010.
- RINCIPLES
- Limited Loading: Each service be loaded with commuters of only 3 to 5 Stations at all times as against those of 10 to 20 stations commuters packed at present per service.
- Uniform Frequency: All sector services shall be made available at uniform intervals at all times to even out crowding in all services.
- Dedicated Sector Wise Services: All sectors would get minimum one exclusive service, long distance would be cleared by super fast & short distance by slow trains, at all times. This would yield 30% more services with the same no. of rakes & tracks as available now.
All Services to repeat on a Cyclic Pattern every 12 MTS. that would make commuting safe for all commuters at all times as indicated in a specimen Cyclic Time Table shown below.
SPECIMEN PATTERN
(2 Fast Services for VR Sector & One MX-VR Shuttle)
FAST CORRIDOR SLOW CORRIDOR DOWN
DOWN ALL TRAINS STOPPING AT
ALL STATIONS.
| DESTINATION | VR | BHY | BVI | GMN | BA | ADH | BVI | MX-VR | |
| HOW RUN >>>> | SUPER FAST | SUPER FAST | SUPER FAST | SUPER FAST | SHUTTLE | ||||
| CHURCHAGATE MARNINE LINES CHARNI ROAD GRANT ROAD | 17.00 S S S | 17.03 S S S | 17.06 S S S | 17.09 S S S | 17.00 S S S | 17.03 S S S | 17.06 S S S | ________ | |
| MUMBAI CENTRAL MAHALAXMI LOWER PAREL ELEPHINSTONE DADAR | 17.10 F F F 17.17 | 17.13 F F F 17.20 | 17.16 F F F 17.23 | 17.19 F F F 17.26 | 17.10 S S S 17.22 | 17.13 S S S 17.25 | 17.16 S S S 17.28 | --------------17.21 S S 17.31 | |
| MATUNGA RD. MAHIM JN. BANDRA | F F 17.23 | F F 17.26 | F F 17.29 | F F 17.32 | S S 17.32 | S S 17.33 | S S 17.36 | 17.39 | |
| KHAR ROAD SANTACRUZ VILE PARLE ANDHERI | F F F F | F F F F | F F F F | F F F 17.40 | S S S 17.48 ===== | S S S 17.49 ===== | S S S 17.52 | ||
| JOGESHWARI GOREGAON MALAD KANDIVALI BORIVALI | F F F F F | F F F F F | F F 17.51 S 17.52 ===== | 17.43 17.49 ===== | S S S 18.11 ===== | S S S S 18.12 | |||
| DASHISAR MIRA ROAD BHAYANDER NAIGAON VASAI ROAD NALLA SOPARA VIRAR | F F F 17.53 17.58 18.03 18.09 ==== | 17.47 17.51 17.56 ==== | | 18.15 18.19 18.25 18.31 18.36 18.41 18.47 ==== |
F = FAST S = SLOW STOPPING.
CTT appears to be a well tested scientific tool of time table planning which has benefitted many countries in their public transport operations.
Railways Viewpoint
In 2006 Mr. Vivek Sahai, now Chairman, Railway Board, gave an enthusiastic response to the pleas and communications of SRUCC regarding the introduction of CTT – saying "the principles of CTT are being examined and wherever the suggestion feasible will be considered while framing the time table."
Either the letter of 2003 was not a considered response or in 2006 Mr.Sahai was not aware of the response given by the WR in 2003. Clearly there is a need for a consistent response from the Railways regarding their opinion on the CTT.
In a verdict dated 28.06.2007 in the Writ Petition No.1092 of 1995 the Bombay High Court has while accepting the hazards faced by the suburban commuters observed that it is beyond the technical capabilities of the court to plan the railways time table and it is upto the State and the Central government or the concerned authorities in the railways to determine the method and the mode which should be adopted by them.
Following are the few Studies carried out at IIT Bombay regarding the time tabling for the railways:
- A cyclic time table can be specified concisely and can be abstracted using a limited number of patterns. Once this is done an optimisation procedure is possible using the representation. But this pattern is difficult to construct because of the various factors: on-off services, non-regular requirements and a large number of service patterns. These factors make it necessary to allow the timetable more control of the construction procedure and checking feasibility itself is a non-trivial task. For this purpose constraint based technique has been studied by Narayan Rangaraj and Milind Sohani, in the paper "Time-tabling of Suburban train services".
- An article written by Prof. Narayan on the CTT ""An analysis of cyclic timetables for suburban rail services "which focuses on the issues and advantages of the CTT for the Mumbai railway system.
The advantages of CTT:
- The time table has a very concise and transparent description to customers. In the period of interest, customers travelling to and fro between locations know the frequency of services and are able to estimate their waiting/total travel time appropriately.
- The timetable permits easy quantification of waiting time related service measures for customers.
- The timetable allows for cyclic plans for rakes, crew and other resources. In particular, roistering of crew duties is much simplified.
- Techniques for construction of "good" cyclic timetables are more efficient, since the pattern (for a short duration) can be optimized based on given criteria. For timetables which requires specific timings of all services, both the optimization criteria and methods for construction are cumbersome.
- In actual operation, the time table allows easy recovery from minor disruptions to services.
- The time table allows customers to plan journeys more precisely, without necessarily having access to a complicated time table document. This leads to better spread of load on coaches and better utilization of available rolling stock
- A frequency based timetable is optimal as far as waiting times for customers is concerned. It is convenient for some operating plans, from the cost point of view
- Even for an announced timetable, with timings, a frequency basis is preferable for all or most locations.
>>>
>>>On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 6:17 PM, A.V.Shenoy <shenoyav@gmail.com> wrote:Dear Kisanbhai
Our group had already made a suggestion to Railway Board to have an elevated pair of tracks which could be used for these trains. There was a news item sometime back that Railway Ministry is doing a survey on this.
Shenoy
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Kisan Mehta" <kisansbc@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 4:12 PM
To: "A.V.Shenoy" <shenoyav@gmail.com>
Cc: "Sujit Patwardhan" <sujitjp@gmail.com>; "Sulakshana Mahajan" <sulakshana.mahajan@gmail.com>; "Bina Balkrishnan" <binacb@gmail.com>; "Kanubhai Kamdar" <kanukamdar@gmail.com>; "Satish Mhatre" <satishchandra_mhatre@yahoo.co.in>; "Sudhir Badami" <sudhirbadami@gmail.com>; "Rajendra Aklekar" <rajendraa@gmail.com>; "Arun Mokashi" <arunpmokashi@hotmail.com>; "Waman Danait" <waman.danait@gmail.com>; "Jitendra Gupta" <jeetu21@gmail.com>; "V. Phatak" <vphatak@vsnl.net>; "Ashok Datar" <datar.ashok@gmail.com>; "Jagdeep Desai" <jagdeep.desai@gmail.com>; "Patankar Suresh N." <snpatankar@rediffmail.com>; "Thatte Surendra" <surendrathatte@gmail.com>; "Salvi Nandkumar" <nandkumarsalvi@hotmail.com>; "Ravindra Mahajan" <matadata@rediffmail.com>; "M. Ramamurty" <ramamurtym@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Hi-speed local set for trial in May - DNA
Dear Colleagues,to match with the demand. Slow and fast trains for commuter service and
To ensure tht the benefits of high speed local train sets percolate to
commuters, it is important and unavoidable that three captive pairs of
railway tracks are provided and are in place from Churchage and CST
upto Valsad/Dahanu, Nashi/Kasara andPune/Karjat for running many more
triains
intercity long dstance destination trains must run on three separate
pairs of tracks.
If the Ind Rlys do not provide for three separate pairs, our fast trains will
stop for more and longer periods between the stations with no saving of
time in journey time to commuters.
Best wishes.
Kisan Mehta -- Kanu Kamdar -- Priya Salvi
6/11, A.V.Shenoy <shenoyav@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi-speed local set for trial in May
Published: Tuesday, Apr 26, 2011, 1:22 IST
By DNA Correspondent | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA
The city's hi-speed local trains that can achieve speeds of
130kmph are finally ready and will be in Mumbai in a month. A team of senior
officials of the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation and the Maharashtra
government would be visiting the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai on
Wednesday to inspect the new wonder that is the product of six years of
research.
The Rs60crore train is expected to break the 100kmph barrier and
run at hi-speeds beyond Kalyan and Virar stations, on tracks that are used
for hi-speed trains like the Rajdhani.
MRVC managing director Dr PC Sehgal confirmed that the "bogies"
(the wheel-sets) were ready and that they would be going for the final
inspection. "If everything goes well, the train should be in city by May,"
he said. Sehgal, who is retiring at the end of this month, said the new
train would be his gift to the city's commuters.
Once the train is in the city, trials will be carried out and it
shall be in service within a month. DNA had first carried a news report in
November 2010 that the delivery of hi-speed trains had been delayed due to
problems. In fact, five such hi-speed trains are expected.
"Within the city the there are limitations that don't permit
high speeds, but it is possible outside city limits. The tracks too need to
be equipped to cater to such speeds," a senior MRVC official said.
The train was expected to arrive earlier but one of its crucial
components went missing at the last moment, delaying the delivery. The
bogies frames and technology has been bought from Siemens, Austria.
"They will have bolsterless suspensions, which will give the
commuters a jerk-free journey," Sehgal added.
The new train is being procured under the Rs4,500 crore World
Bank-funded Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). MRVC is co-ordinating the
project. While the train will look similar to the other trains, it will be
the train's high-speed bogie (wheel sets) that will make all the difference.
"Once the new train arrives, it will be subjected to heavy
trials and oscillation tests. We will be loading them with sacks of sand
completely to match the crowding weight and take trials as they would a
fully-crowded train run," a senior official said.
--
Kisan Mehta Kanu kamdar Priya Salvi
Save Bombay Committee,Prakruti and Life Foundation.
1203, Kanchanjanga "A", Plot 20,
Sector 11,Koparkhairane,
Navi Mumbai 4000709 India
www.savebombaycommittee.org
Kisan Mehta: 0091 9223448857
Priya Salvi: 0091 9324027494
Kanu Kamdar: 0091 9821999401
Niraj Mehta: 0091 8097535559
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