RTI response from SWR on Commuter Rail

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Commuter RailPublic Transport

[Posting this on behalf of Ritesh who filed the RTI]

Attached with this blog is the response from SWR to the RTI queries posed on Commuter Rail for Bengaluru. If you have any further questions based on this response, leave them as comments here so we can include them in the next RTI to SWR.

SWR RTI on Bengaluru Commuter Rail

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Comments

Observations

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Some observations on the RTI response

1. No nodal agency from GoK to coordinate these activities means all activities are chaotic and adhoc. Example, segments like Yeswantpur to Anekal where current YH1 service runs have totally been left out of scope of doubling & electrification. Effectively killing any scope of expanding the service and making it useful. This segment covers the entier swathe from west to south Bangalore thru east, touching at least 6 radial corridors. NH4 & 7 both ends + Sarjapur & Varthur roads

2. The utilization of the track has been quoted to be 100% full, in the response, when just one train runs from KR Puram to Doddballapur via Yelahanka in a period of 3 hours. What kind of railway service in the world runs 1 train in 3 hours and calls the track 100% utilized?

Seems like a joke is being perpetrated on the people of Bangalore.

 I am curious about 100%

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 I am curious about 100% utilization. I was going through this paper.   Probably it would a good question to ask to SWR/SR..

PS: Is this post to be moved to Namma Railu section?

" My mantra to public bodies=> Enable->Educate->Enforce. Where does  DDC  fit?"

Capacity

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  I was going through this paper. 

Very good link. Should try and apply it based on the data from the RTI response for the peak hours mentioned there. Anybody wants to take a stab at it?

Gasbags in SWR/IR?

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...or maybe just plain incompetent. Either way from the RTI response, applying the UIC 406 formula [5], if capacity is defined as trains per hour then,

even the most used line SBC-WFD is ONLY 3.2 trains per hour during peak hours,

compared with, for example 168 trains per hour running in 1964 in Australia per this report, Or more appropriately,

12 trains short of a minimum per hour performance benchmark of a double tracked line in Japan.

People are only asking for 1 additional train per hour as a part of commuter rail on all of these segments not 5, 10 or 100. We need to nail these lies/incompetence. There is enough ammunition for a PIL.

Consider the following examples from the same report

  • In Japan, planners face the exact same problem of operating double-track 'main lines' with a mixture of stopping trains, expresses, long-distance services and freight. The minimum performance benchmark there is 15 trains per hour each way (or one train every four minutes). This applies regardless of the service mix; but if one particular kind of service predominates, then planners expect to be able to run even more trains.
  • The busiest subway line in Rome (an ordinary two-track railway much like ours, only underground), carries 500,000 passengers a day. On the day of the Pope's funeral in 2006, this one Italian train line carried one million passengers: more than are carried per day on Melbourne's entire train system.
  • The Paris RER 'A' line (again a two-track railway, but with more signalling) carries 55,000 passengers an hour, more than a million per weekday, and 273 million in a year. This one line exceeds Melbourne's entire train passenger load by some 30 to 40 per cent.
  • During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, its three SkyTrain lines carried as many as 600,000 trips in one day. SkyTrain is sometimes described as a 'light rail' system, but on this occasion it carried more passengers in one day than the entire 15-line Melbourne train system. One of these lines (the Canada Line) carried 207,000 passengers: as many as Melbourne's entire system carries in peak hour!

RTI Response - What a Sham

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SWR needs to be RTI'd once again by attaching the article/s re. myths on capacity & also a copy of the UIC code of the Int'l Union of Rlys. A copy of this RTI with attachments (& SWR's reply) must be mailed to all the babus who were sent the commuter rail report.

This continuing & ongoing case of trying to fool everybody about severe "capacity constraints" without using any scientific basis to arrive at percentages for "utilization" without assigning figs for capacity consumptions & idling capacities, etc. must be ended soonest.

I think this is the only way to get SWR to the table for discussions.

It would be nice to find out

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It would be nice to find out what the Indian railway manual or such documents say about capacity utilization.

Capacity

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 Interesting you raised the question. DRM's office had mentioned the problem is not with the lines but the capacity of the stations. Sudhir Chandra & Sivasailam explained to a few of us on the sidelines of the event that due to the non availability of dedicated pass thru tracks at the stations regardless of how much track is lying idle, before & after the station, unless one track clears they will be unable to let the next train go in the block. The only way to solve this is for Railways to maintain pass thru tracks and not clog all tracks parking their trains. Which they are unable to do because they park trains for long hours on the tracks and all the tracks are hence utilized. 

The question of automated block signalling, which was always in the plans but never implemented, was also raised by Mr Sharma, I thought I heard Mr Haldar say it is not required for us right now.

The citizen charter of Indian

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The citizen charter of Indian Railways www.goicharters.nic.in/railways.htm does not seem to mention commuter railways, also nothing about capacity etc. I think they should say something about CRS, then we could request them to implement that! :)

Other reports

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I think they should say something about CRS, then we could request them to implement that! 

We dont have to get the wordings in our favourite document to get them to implement it. Take some time to browse through other documents like vision 2020 & Railways working group report which are not unimportant documents, that are on various threads here. Volumes have been said on commuter rail there.

We have moved quite far along away from these generic documents. Railways have given in writing to GoK how they will enable commuter rail in Bangalore. Read the meeting notes with the chief secretary also where railways have committed to starting commuter rail for Bangalore. Only specifics need to be worked out. So no need to go inserting words in generic railways documents now instead we have to keep the pressure on GoK to 'get it done'

Just a piece of information

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The citizen charter is the interface of railway to the users, so it should say something about commuter railway, shouldn't it? Just added information I found.

I have been following the CRS project. Your effort has been amazing. Thanks for replying.

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