RAILWAY SAMACHAR

ACTION PLAN NO. ONE FOR MUMBAI

CYCLIC TIME-TABLE

A KHULJA SIM SIM

A. With quadruplication of tracks between Borivali & Virar, large no. of additional new rakes received and optimized tracks, Mumbai’s Suburban rlys. are now equipped to rid our city of its two most serious problems of transport and pollution from tomorrow, by just redesigning their Suburban Time-Tables on a Cyclic pattern as per today’s traffic needs that would reduce overcrowding on all suburban services at all times of the day by 30 to 40% from day one of its introduction, with the same no. rakes & tracks as they now have without a rupee’s additional investment. For no justifiable reason Mumbaikar’s are made to suffer humanly intolerable and hazardous travels, resulting in half a dozen deaths and hundreds losing their limbs daily, compelling large no. of citizens to go for road travels that has culminated in another serious problem of pollution, making every citizen a patient all round the year.

TOPSY TURVY TIME-TABLE

B. During the last 2-3 decades, the demography of our city has undergone such a drastic change that the present time-table is topsy-turvy to today’s traffic needs, the root cause of commuter’s woes. The intra-suburban traffic north of Bandra-Kurla axis on Suburban Rlys. is now so heavy that to clear it by Churchgate/CST services which are jam packed from their first few starting stations is simply senseless. It ought to be cleared by exclusive suburban shuttles plying at regular intervals from early morning till late night. This will give immediate relief to all commuters almost overnight. The worst part of the present time-table is that it packs commuters of 10 to 20 stations per service when a train gets loaded twice or thrice its optimum rated capacity with commuters of only 3 to 6 stations, making commuting unbearable. The situation is further aggravated with uneven frequency of services, resulting in waste of capacity when too close and accident prone travelling when too afar.

HUGE POTENTIAL

C. During the last 3 decades, Govt. has pumped in thousands of crores of Rupees in upgrading Suburban rlys. to mitigate commuters hardships. For example Suburban tracks have been optimized by reducing intra-signal distances from 800 to 400 meters, making feasible plying of Suburban services at 2mts. headways as against those of 3mts & 4mts. on Western & C. Rly. resptly, all old slow motion rakes have been replaced by new High Efficiency rakes that can run at maximum of 100 Kmph. Yet Suburban Time-Tables are designed at running timings slower than those of 1937 by the same rly. Further commuters too have made great sacrifice by paying extra thousands of crores of rupees in the form of safety surcharge since 2001. With 10 suburban tracks (4 each of C.Rly. & W.Rly plus 2 of Harbour) Suburban Rlys. have the potential to give totally 6000 services daily as against a total of only about 2400 trains plied now. There is now no point in idling rakes during afternoon in view of peak period traffic from 6.00a.m. to 11.00p.m. This has resulted in average rake utilization of as low as 13hours a day as per Rly. Board statistics, when present EMU rakes can technically run continuously even for 22 hours a day.

WORLD CLASS RLY.

D. If therefore the present outdated time-table were redesigned as per today’s traffic needs and as per principles of Time-Table construction as laid down under the Indians Rlys. Act and its Rules, accommodating limited commuters of only 3 to 6 stations on all services, with uniform frequency, clearing traffic through dedicated sectorwise services, repeating every 12Mts; we could have from tomorrow a World class Suburban Rly. without much a do. Two such specimen Cyclic Time-Tables, one each for Central & Western rly. are attached herewith to illustrate the above principles and show how it would immediately make commuting safe and comfortable at all times for all commuters.

BENEFITS

E. 01. With limited loading of commuters on each service, coupled with 30% additional services obtained through optimization and rationalization, there could be little doubt about the proposed Cyclic Time-Table breaking overcrowding of Suburban trains from day one of its implementation.

02. Safer travel for all commuters at all times, with minimum 30 to 40% reduction in overcrowding in all trains at all times at all
stations.

03. 20 to 25% saving in travel time for long distance commuters (ADH to VR/ Kurla to Kasara/ Karjat) through super fast
services.

04. Direct services without any changeover at any in between station for all commuters to go from any station to any station between CCG & VR and CST & Kalyan, the most gruesome necessity for large no. of commuters under present time-tabling system.

05. Clock-like punctuality as experienced now on Harbour Line where such a Cyclic Time-Table is in operation at present.

SOLUTION TO POLLUTION

F. If travel by Sub. trains is made as safe and comfortable as suggested above there could be little doubt about bulk of road commuters, including those having their own vehicles switching over to rails, due mainly to its speedy & eco-friendly travel. It is not realized that one additional 9 car suburban service has the potential to put off the road 6000 private cars, on its single journey between CCG & BVI with 3 times commuters turnover on the way. This would drastically reduce the total no. of vehicles plying on the roads, resulting in notable relief to Mumbaikars in the matter of road travel as well as vehicular pollution.

RLY. BOARD RECOMMENDED

G. Such a scientific Cyclic Time-Table is a suggestion recommended by the Rly. Board, universally acclaimed by all commuters when tried last by W. Rly. & is now satisfactorily in operation on Harbour Line. W.Rly at its Suburban Rail User’s Consultative Committee Meeting on 29.06.2006 has decided to implement principles of such a Cyclic Time-Table. However for the reasons best known to W.Rly., it has still to implement it. We hereby appeal to our city’s new elected MPS to come to the rescue of the common man “aam aadmi” of Mumbai and save our city from its two most serious problems through cost effective, time saving & well tried Cyclic Time-Table which has a proven potential to be our city’s “KHULJA SIM SIM”, without an iota of exaggeration.