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5M views 26K replies 813 participants last post by  sgups 
#1 ·
Post articles related to the Indian railways here
 
#201 ·
It would have been great, if they could have replicated a similar glass structure on the other side instead of those buildings.. Modern train stations are not complicated...Here are some great stations I like from Europe. Europeans are great at building train networks and I love travelling in these trains...

Amsterdam


Germany


France
 
#203 ·
Just an opinion question: should we demolish our old Victorian looking centrals, and build more modern ones with some incorporation of Indian culture?
no matter who built it, or when, they are a part of the history of the city. I think demolishing them is a very bad idea. I think they can modernize them and provide better facilities for passengers, but as monuments to Indian History they should be preserved!!
 
#204 ·
Railways show 50 percent jump in AC booking due to airfare hike

The steep rise in airfares has given a major boost to Indian Railways, which has seen bookings in air-conditioned (AC) coaches rise more than 50 percent.

The railways carried 5.97 million passengers in AC coaches in July this year, compared to four million bookings in July 2007, an increase of almost 50 percent.

Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains alone have witnessed about 52 percent jump in bookings this July, as compared to tickets sold in July last year.

In the western zone, which had lost the maximum number of passengers to low cost airlines, passengers are now returning to train travel.

Western Railway saw bookings in July rise by about 53 percent.

'Travellers who had earlier shifted from second AC and third AC to low-cost airlines are now coming back to the railways, owing to the rise in airfares in the past few months,' a railway official said.

Rahul Taneja, an official with online travel agency yatra.com, felt the same way.

'When low-cost flights were introduced, many people who travelled by AC-II and AC-III went for air travel, as they were inexpensive. Now with the increase in airfare, they have reverted to train travel.'

July, which is otherwise considered a lean month, has seen a 50 percent rise in AC bookings.

Of this, third AC bookings were the maximum, having gone up from two million to almost 3.3 million.

However, the increase in the bookings for non-AC sleeper class is just 24 percent, the official said.

The rush for AC bookings has boosted the revenues of Indian Railways. Earning from Rajdhani alone has shot up from Rs.64 million in July 2007 to Rs.98 million this July.

'The increase in airfares is not the only reason why people are choosing our premier trains. We have also taken measures to increase passenger comfort and cater to the increased demand by adding extra coaches,' said Northern Railway spokesperson S. Negi.

Facilities such as electronic ticketing, automatic upgrade of reserved tickets and improved passenger amenities in Rajdhani and Shatabdi have also attracted passengers.

Private players have been roped in to provide services such as cleaning of train floors, stocking of soaps and towels in toilets, and looking after passenger needs.
 
#205 ·
Railways witnessing new dynamism
The turnaround of Indian Railways today came in for praise from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who said it was witnessing a "new dynamism".

Highlighting in his Independence Day address the various initiatives launched by the government for inclusive economic growth, Singh said "the second important area of development has been infrastructure development."

Mentioning the role of the largest PSU in infrastructure development, he said "there is a new dynamism in our Railways."

The Railways have generated a cash surplus of Rs 69,000 crore in the past four years.
That is $17B. All the major metro cities can be revamped and if the IR undertakes a project for new look train then IR would really be transformed.

S Railway records impressive growth in passenger earning

Chennai (PTI): Southern Railway on Friday said it has registered a passenger earning of Rs 750 crore in the first four months of this fiscal, a 20 per cent growth from that in the corresponding period last financial year.

During the period, Southern Railway carried 224 million passengers, 13 per cent more than that in the same period last year, its General Manager Rakesh Chopra said in a release.

"In the same period, we have loaded 11 million tons, nine per cent more than last year and earned Rs 445 crore from goods traffic, an increase of 24 per cent over last year," he said.

As part of serving more number of passengers, Southern Railway has planned to develop 'coaching terminals' at Tambaram and Kochuveli and will also be strengthening their facilities at Tirunelveli and Rameswaram, he said.

Chopra said that the gauge conversion of the main line between Villupuram and Mayiladuthurai will be completed by the year-end and would reopen the rail link to towns of Cuddalore, Chidambaram and Sirkhazhi.

He said that they will be introducing mechanised cleaning of major stations for improving the standard of cleanliness.
 
#206 ·
Railways witnessing new dynamism


That is $17B. All the major metro cities can be revamped and if the IR undertakes a project for new look train then IR would really be transformed.

S Railway records impressive growth in passenger earning

First of all IR must change how the train toilets function. It is a disgrace to our society.
Then they can change the look of the stations. What is the point in having a futuristic looking station but the crap still smears the track?

There must be a multi-pronged strategy to improve the safety, comfort and aesthetics .etc. This can be easily acheived with the kind of money they boast. $17B is not small money. They can do wonders with this money.
The IR has been claiming this for couple of years now. I don't see any big ideas being implemented.
 
#207 ·
xPost.

I remember there was a project showcased by IR, sometime ago, about toilets a la Airlines. Even the IITs were involved in the design. This is an abomination that requires a fix immediately and in today's day and age looks pre-historic cavemen like living. I don't know when the IR going to rapidly convert to modern times and make India part of the modern times.

Someone (Chairman/Secretary) in IR must come up with a complete plan for a makeover. A showpiece railway station (and I am not talking about large metros, but smaller ones) and a showpiece railway train with modern TGV like coaches and engine. The aesthetics should be a design(s) by some Industrial design house or college competition and have say 5 top great designs for railway stations. Then it is a matter of estimating costs and phasing them over a period of time. Each railway station makeover should be handed over to a private company to tender on the bid and execute. If this is properly planned and executed we can have a makeover in say 4 yrs. The money for this makeover should not be a problem. The IR is seeing vast improvements in revenue, ridership and with clean modern trains and stations the revenue picture is going to improve further. The investments would repay itself several times.

Time for a revolution in IR.
 
#208 ·
First of all, improving the aerodynamics of our current rolling for a better image is quite pointless. It will only look cheap and tacky rather than contemporary.

Besides, there is no need for sharp aerodynamics in anything but high speed trains. For example - well, you wo'nt find a real world example anywhere.

@barrykul:

Let us list what all needs an overhaul -

1. Engines and coaches
a - Modern coaches with better comfort, safety and hygeine
b - Entirely electric traction? Or modern deisels
2. Railway stations
a - Passenger flow
b - Ticket facilities - modern counters, ticket machines etc.
c - Other facilities - food courts, toilets, seating and waiting, information displays, security, parking, entry and exit, helpdesks, telephones and internet, luggage storage and moving, escalators and lifts, lighting, cleaning, capacity
3. High speed rail lines in select short distance corridors
4. Frieght corridors
5. Possibly - revamp of electric traction from overhead to third rail technology - this will intensify the need for better safeguards against people crossing tracks
6. Rail over bridges, signalling, tracking, fencing, underpasses etc.

That is a huge amount of work to be done, and each of those points has a very large scope. Now the railways turnaround is bringing in a lot of improvements without increasing fares, some of those overhauls are getting underway for example. But a complete overhaul will take some time, and shortcut methods will be wasteful and ineffective.

I am still skeptical of what exactly IR and Lalu are planning to do with the cash surplus, their purpose should not be profit, but passenger service. They sure have started talking big, lets see how it goes.

SSC has some members, like Sridhar, who are very knowledgeable on IR especially. I wonder if they are still posting?
 
#215 ·
Games in sight, New Delhi station gets ready
Dwaipayan Ghosh | TNN

New Delhi: To enhance the capacity of New Delhi railway station before the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Northern Railway has decided to remodel and restructure the station and the yard. The work, including installation of the new route relay interlocking panel (NRRI) that will facilitate 1278 routes with automatic signalling system, will start next month. For the purpose, the station will remain noninterlocked from September 6 to September 14 and all trains movement during this period will be handled manually.

Rajiv Saxena, chief spokesperson of Northern Railway, said once operational, the new interlocking system will the largest in India. It will replace the existing British system of route relay interlocking that handles 690 routes. There will be additions and alterations on 125 routes at the Old Delhi Junction, he said.

According to railway officials, after the remodelling work the station will be able to handle 33% more load. ‘‘The bottleneck in Sadar area would be removed and there will be six lines in place of the existing three at Sadar Bazar end of New Delhi station making an independent corridor for reception and dispatch of trains to and from Old Delhi junction, Kishanganj, Subzi Mandi and Sarai Rohilla stations,’’ said Saxena. He said this will allow certain trains to pass through New Delhi station without waiting for clearance from platforms.

Also, after the work there will be six lines between New Delhi and Tilak Bridge in place of four. Officials also said four more platforms will added to the existing 12 platforms at the station.

In view the work, 62 trains will be cancelled, 126 trains will be terminated short of their final destination and 50 trains will be diverted to run on alternative routes and will use railways stations at Old Delhi, Sarai Rohilla and Hazrat Nizamuddin from September 5 to September 15.

Among the major trains that will be affected are Jammu Tawi Rajdhani, Ajmer Shatabdi, Bhubaneswar Rajdhani, Jan Shatabdi Express, Ranchi Rajdhani, Navyug Express, Patna Garib Rath, Howrah Express, Grand Trunk Express, Puri Express and Tamil Nadu Express.
Source - TOI
 
#216 ·
i dont get it, does this refer to that last article posted by zenith or to the good renders by terry farrel?

PHP:
Rly expansion may cost Minto Bridge

NEW DELHI: The historic Minto Railway Bridge in central Delhi may soon be a thing of the past. A listed heritage structure, this British-period bridge may soon be pulled down by Northern Railway for its elaborate redevelopment plans for New Delhi railway station. According to sources, NR has got verbal approval from the ministry of urban development to demolish the old bridge and make way for a new one. This despite the demolition plea of the bridge being rejected by the heritage conservation committee last year.

When contacted, NR officials would not clearly state whether they were going to demolish the bridge and simply said it would be ‘remodelled'. According to a senior official, there is little scope for further expansion of the station if the bridge was not ‘remodelled' immediately.

"We have four lines entering New Delhi railway station from the bridge which results in a lot of time being wasted even for trains which arrive on time. Hence, we want to add two more lines to the existing ones," said an official. However, he added that the railway ministry was yet to take a final decision on the station modernisation plans. "There is every possibility that we may have to pull down a portion of the bridge as part of future expansion plans. We are aware of the historical significance of the bridge and will not do anything to destroy the essence of it," said an official.

Last year, the sub-committee of the heritage conservation committee appointed by the Supreme Court to safeguard the city's heritage rejected the NR proposal to demolish the bridge. The committee observed that Minto Bridge "was the only bridge existing from the period of the building of New Delhi and therefore constitutes an important part of the composition of Connaught Place and Lutyen's Delhi". The sub committee firmly declared that the bridge must be retained in the Heritage List under category B.

Prof AGK Menon, a member of the heritage conservation committee, told Times City that the bridge should be retained at all cost and called for negotiations with NR to find a way to avoid demolishing the bridge. "There has to be more dialogue with the railways. They want to pull down the bridge for their expansion plans but there can be some middle ground solution to this problem," he said.

INTACH advisor O P Jain, also a member of the committee, added: "The bridge is architecturally and historically important. It is one of the few old bridges still surviving in the city. We asked the railways to preserve the bridge and make another as per their requirements but you simply can't pull it down. It's a part of the whole heritage complex of Connaught Place and Paharganj."

The bridge, built in the 1930s, is considered an "architecture merit" of the British rule. While the bridge is not protected, heritage conservationists have long been opposing NR's plea to demolish it by claiming it was "historically important" along with the nearby Paharganj bridge.
 
#218 ·
the idea afaik is to expand the capacity of the station before the commonwealth games and then do the modernization after the games. this was done because the whole modernization was expected to take almost 5 years, so if they started now, the station would be a complete mess by the time the games start.....
 
#219 ·
#220 · (Edited)
Folks,

I haven't really looked closely at Minto Bridge to comment on its value as a historical heritage structure etc.

But then the fact that I have gone under that bridge 100s of times and never paticularly noticed it is in itself a comment.

Any comments?

IMO, it would be cool to have a modern and **w i d e ** underpass at that location to complement the new Civic Center coming up.
 
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