INDIA | Railways

[Svartmetall]

Well in response I personally think India and it's railways are wonderful! Such a colourful and dynamic country.

[Euromast]

^ these are mumbai sub urban local trains. these are old rakes. Now been replaced by new rakes.

Check Vedio

Unfortunately people still i have to wait till the Metro train gets going

Mumbai Metro

[ADCS]

I have a very important question regarding Indian Railways. Does anyone know where I could get information about them nowadays and recent history? I need it to be fairly academic, this is for a graduate school term paper. I would appreciate it greatly.

[forrestcat]

Found this pic on Wiki, an indian railway DMU.

[forrestcat]

Originally Posted by Euromast

^ these are mumbai sub urban local trains. these are old rakes. Now been replaced by new rakes.

Check Vedio

Unfortunately people still i have to wait till the Metro train gets going

Mumbai Metro

OMG, can't understand the English of the reporter .It's nice to see that they're putting effort in modernzing. I wonder why can't they provide more modern rolling stocks ages ago since they produce all their trains/rolling stocks/locomotives locally.

[Euromast]

^ yes the accent is different of non english speaking nations. Similarly i had problem in understanding english in a malaysian vedio.:-)

After opening up the economy and success of Delhi metro, every state in India want metro. Also now its difficult for the idiot leaders to make fool of people any more

After opening up the aviation sector, the railway is getting tough compeition. So now Indian railways is thinking big. Modernisation of tarin stations, High speed trains, Modern rakes and dedicated freight corridor is on cards.

So insallah it will change;-)

[hkskyline]

France offers to help India modernise railways including fast trains
13 May 2008
Agence France Presse

France will sign an agreement with India to help modernise its massive railway system with a focus on safety, training and technology including fast trains, the French transport minister said Tuesday.

"Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français - the French National Railway Company - and the Indian Railways will co-operate through companies to modernise the railways in India," Dominique Bussereau, French state transport minister said.

"Our focus will be to increase safety measures, prevent fires, introduction of high-speed trains and personnel training," the minister told reporters.

France currently holds the record for the world's fastest commercial passenger train service at 320 kilometres (200 miles) per hour, he said.

The agreements will be signed in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Bussereau arrived in India Monday, on a three day visit to boost partnership in railways, aviation and freight transport systems between the two countries.

French and Indian Railways will tackle issues like overcrowding, railway track repairs, signalling, information technology and training, officials from both services added.

The state-run Indian railways, started by India's former British colonial rulers, has around 1.6 million employees -- making it the world's biggest civilian employer -- and runs thousands of trains daily.

But the 150-year-old railway, which transports more than 15 million people daily in the country of 1.1 billion people, has been notorious for deadly accidents, antiquated equipment, financial losses, delays and red tape.

The Indian Railways have posted a record 6.3-billion-dollar surplus for the financial year 2007-08, Railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said in February this year.

The French transport minister and his team leaves for capital New Delhi later Tuesday to meet civil aviation minister Praful Patel to discuss issues like building airport infrastructure, control tower systems and pilot training.

[MxC]

Guys, I happen to come across this thread. For those of you who are not aware, there is already a great thread on Indian Railways with a very active community. Here are the links:

Initial thread: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=137250. This thread started on Jul 29, 2004 and goes upto Aug 9, 2007 when it was moved to a new thread due to high volume of replies in this thread.

The new thread was started at: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=539912

These threads, in addition to discussing Indian Railways, were also discussing MRTS, Trams, Buses, etc.

Recently, on Jun 2, 2008, all discussions pertaining to Indian Railways was moved to a separate thread of its own at http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=638652.

Hope this info helps those who were not aware of this thread.

[hkskyline]

Mumbai's deadly trains claim a dozen daily
26 June 2008
Agence France Presse

Every morning college student Siddhi Sarangdhar squeezes herself onto a Mumbai train and hopes she will survive the journey to school on the world's busiest -- and deadliest -- rail network.

The death toll on Mumbai's railways averages a dozen a day -- more than a whole year on New York's subway system, which has an average annual accidental death rate of eight.

"It's a big achievement getting on. Then standing is really difficult and getting off is another problem," said Sarangdhar.

Mumbai’s rail system brings 6.5 million commuters into the city every day, six times the traffic of New York trains.

The result, railway officials say, is trains packed to 2.5 times capacity during rush hour -- which here in India's financial capital is called "super dense crush load time".

Railway cars designed for 200 passengers are crammed with 500 at peak times.

In the first four months of this year, 1,146 commuters died and 1,395 were injured, railway police said.

Many of the victims had been hanging on the side of the packed trains, unable even to wedge themselves inside, and fell to their deaths after losing their grip, they said.

Last year’s total toll was 3,997 deaths and 4,307 injuries.

"We could enforce a limit on the number of people on a train but people still need to go to work. They'll sit on the tracks and stop trains from moving," Central Railways chief security commissioner BS Sidhu said.

"Overcrowding can be prevented only by very broad alterations to the system," he said.

Two billion dollars, part of it from a World Bank loan, have been earmarked to improve public transport in Mumbai, a city of 18 million, by 2015.

But although authorities are working to increase the number of trains and their frequency, commuter figures appear to be growing at a faster pace.

While a third of deaths are of passengers losing their grip on the side of the train, nearly half are people hit by trains as they stroll on the tracks.

"The number of preventable deaths should come down in the years to come. But unpreventable deaths are unpreventable," Sidhu said.

Unpreventable deaths -- from the railway’s view -- include those passengers hit by trains when crossing tracks to get to another platform, illegal but not unusual.

Railway authorities have tried to combat the practice -- by fining tens of thousands of lawbreakers, erecting fences and asking people to identify places where footbridges should be built.

Still, in Mumbai "nobody in their senses will walk one (extra) kilometre to cross a foot bridge and then walk one kilometre back," said Sidhu.

It was while strolling across the tracks at Borivali -- Mumbai's second deadliest station -- that Samir Zaveri lost his legs when he was 18. He fell in front of an approaching train and it sliced thorugh his legs.

"It was my mistake, not the railway's," Zaveri, 37, who has artificial legs, admits.

Nevertheless, this year he decided to sue the railway for wasting crucial time when a passenger is injured.

"Immediate treatment can save lives. Sometimes it takes two to three hours for the railways to deliver" an injured victim to a hospital, he said.

In 2003, a high court ordered railway stations to have ambulances standing by for accidents, but many do not and there are regular reports of injured passengers left beside the tracks while the trains continue rolling.

And then there is India's infamous red tape.

"The railways must get a stretcher, inspect the body and write a memo about the injury. Then an ambulance is requested. Much time is lost," explained TS Bhal, ex-superintendent of the Government Railway Police.

Bhal started a non-profit society four years ago to provide ambulances for railway victims after he saw an unconscious railway victim raise his hands after being left for dead on the platform for three days.

"I've seen bodies lying in pieces unattended," he said.

"The railway staff is not interested in providing transportation facilities to victims."

[X38]

Originally Posted by forrestcat

Found this pic on Wiki, an indian railway DMU.

Those tracks look VERY bad.

[vidya]

Originally Posted by Svartmetall

Well in response I personally think India and it's railways are wonderful! Such a colourful and dynamic country.

sorry I am staying in India from many years and according to me Indian railways especially mumbai is worst. we should never ever travel by those trains .

[vidya]

just check out this link http://www.cehat.org/trainaccidents/accdeainj.html#2
and u will how how dangerous railways are in India

[vidya]

Originally Posted by X38

Those tracks look VERY bad.

vey bad it's just horrible

[unixer]

india has the longest raiway/largest railway transportation network in the world.

[JoKo65]

Originally Posted by unixer

india has the longest raiway/largest railway transportation network in the world.

Don't agree.

[henrypan123]

Originally Posted by unixer

india has the longest raiway/largest railway transportation network in the world.

Well, I'm afraid not.
NO.1 is USA
NO.2 is Russia
NO.3 is China

[zenith_suv]

The US has the largest railway system in the world - about 240,000 km connecting 48 continental states. That is enough track to circle the Earth five times.

Russia (154,000 km) and Canada (72,961 km) follow. India comes fifth with 62,658 km of railroad after Canada and China. Indian Railways is owned by the government, and is the largest under a single management.

[zergcerebrates]

Originally Posted by unixer

india has the longest raiway/largest railway transportation network in the world.

Thats not even true as mentioned, but then what good is it when Indian railway system seriously needs help?

[hkskyline]

New Delhi railway station on track for a sleek makeover
18 September 2008
The Times of India

NEW DELHI: The New Delhi railway station is getting a sleek new look. From new infrastructure to technological enhancements, the station is on track to reach world-class status by 2010.

Other than completion of the mammoth Route Relay Interlocking System (RRI), that came after circuiting an area of about 3.5km using 700km of cables, the station plans to offer a lot more to its passengers by the year-end. A sprawling new building with enhanced passenger amenities, international graphic signs, disabled-friendly platforms, shopping arcade, food court and the list goes on.

The completion of the first part of the renovation came at a cost of Rs 71 crore. Apart from the route relay interlocking system that costed Indian Railways Rs 27 crore, the maintenance facility of the station has also been upgraded by the addition of a track. A new track has also been added to remove the bottleneck from the Sadar Bazaar side."The completion of RRI has made sure that there was no conflicting movement on the tracks. Not just that, the RRI will also drastically reduce the chances of rail traffic congestion," said a Northern railway spokesperson.

The entire RRI system is controlled from power cabin where the operators have a layout in front of them indicating the occupied and unoccupied tracks. With RRI capable of handling 1,278 routes, the station has also entered the Guiness Book of World Records.

According to a railway official, the transformation of New Delhi Railway Station is not just because of the Commonwealth Games but also to handle 8-12% growth in passenger traffic in last 2-3 years.

Northern Railways chief spokesperson, Rajiv Saxena said, "With the increase in passenger rush, its not just the rail traffic that has to be smoothened but facilities for passengers comfort are also to be added. To meet this demand, railways is carrying out the required changes."

The station has also added four platforms (two of which are to be completed shortly), which will ease out the problem of trains getting held up because of the unavailability of platforms. Saxena added, "Going by the fact that the during the peak seasons the station handles more than 4 lakh passengers, the additional platforms will also offer greater passenger space."

The new 80,000-square foot station building at the Ajmeri gate entrance will only make things better. According to a railway official, it will be a state-of-the-art building. Expected to be ready by December-end, it will have a touch-screen enquiry system, plasma TV but also an AC ticketing area. The building will also house both AC and non-AC waiting rooms and dormitories.

[satsk3]

Cross posting from Indian Rly photo section: -

Originally Posted by SarafIndian

The country’s first ‘service coach’ with hostesses was flagged off on Wednesday. Run by KBS Tour and Travels and named Queen B, the coaches will be part of the Kanchankanya Express and Uttar Banga Express trains to give passengers the comfort of in-flight facilities



Photo and Information source: Times of India