Indian Railways

when it comes to IR, it's not just about speed, it's also about density and congestion. so adding tracks at high density routes is also one of the things being done.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...k-seven-busy-routes/articleshow/104766737.cms

and this is not a new plan, below is an old response in LS.

https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/660711/1/15269.pdf

in practical terms, the solutions looks like this from gormint policy side.


View: https://youtu.be/Gk_FhUkbJzE

and since these is no feedback loop in public discourse, pretty sure no one will bother to check the impact a few years later, after these projects get completed.

What railway is doing is doubling/ quadrupling the legacy alignment or upgrading tracks to 130 kmph from 110 kmph. Railway has to ditch the idea of using the legacy circuitous alignments which has curves and gradients passing through major towns for speed travel and build geeenfield express alignment like NHAI’s National expressways for faster connectivity between two metropolitan cities bypassing tier 2 cities. Mumbai - Delhi - Kolkata - Chennai - Bengaluru - Mumbai express corridor at max speed 250 kmph and avg speed of 220 kmph will de congest a lot of traffic from existing infrastructure. Even bullet train being built has two many stops between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Bullet train would be to expensive to afford for majority of citizens and we have to build an affordable semi high speed corridor to rely on. The existing 130-160 kmph infrastructure can cater to large extent of population covering major towns and then the greenfield corridor for faster transportation.
 
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What railway is doing is doubling/ quadrupling the legacy alignment or upgrading it to 130 kmph from 110 kmph. Railway has to ditch the legacy circuitous alignments which has curves and gradients passing through major towns and build geeenfield express alignment like NHAI’s National expressways for faster connectivity between to metropolitan cities. Even bullet train being built has two many stops between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

so only metropolitan and major cities residents and goods should travel on those new tracks and trains , no one else.
Point A and point B, no one else in between. it does solve the problem of speed and time you are most worried about.
 
so only metropolitan and major cities residents and goods should travel on those new tracks and trains , no one else.
Point A and point B, no one else in between. it does solve the problem of speed and time you are most worried about.
Yeah you mean bullet trains also need stops to every town? Because they also wants to travel on the dedicated bullet train corridor?
 
Yeah you mean bullet trains also need stops to every town? Because they also wants to travel on the dedicated bullet train corridor?

you are setting the parameters of this problem statement from your earlier post. if you don't want the train to stop at "every town", it won't stop. and i am agreeing, with your solution.
 

View: https://twitter.com/Indrani1_Roy/status/1898105439591842275?s=19


View: https://twitter.com/Indrani1_Roy/status/1898105532961243403?s=19

Ashwini Vaishnaw was associated with Siemens after he quit the IAS & before Modi invited him to join the cabinet .

Now I'm not insinuating anything but our infrastructure spending as far as IR goes is totally lopsided with no long term strategy as to what can we extract from F-OEMs with a view to build up our tech firms in this sector thru absorption of technology .

This was clearly seen in the case of Alstom being awarded the RRTS contract between Delhi & Meerut, where Train -18 was denied participation on grounds of experience in running such trains if you can believe it , while Alstom carried out plenty of modifications on an existing design from some other branch of Alstom in another location in order to qualify IIRC or so the report then went . Perhaps better informed members can weigh in.

If It not mistaken the contract for handling of this entire lime has also been given to a German company..
 

View: https://twitter.com/Indrani1_Roy/status/1898105439591842275?s=19


View: https://twitter.com/Indrani1_Roy/status/1898105532961243403?s=19

Ashwini Vaishnaw was associated with Siemens after he quit the IAS & before Modi invited him to join the cabinet .

Now I'm not insinuating anything but our infrastructure spending as far as IR goes is totally lopsided with no long term strategy as to what can we extract from F-OEMs with a view to build up our tech firms in this sector thru absorption of technology .

This was clearly seen in the case of Alstom being awarded the RRTS contract between Delhi & Meerut, where Train -18 was denied participation on grounds of experience in running such trains if you can believe it , while Alstom carried out plenty of modifications on an existing design from some other branch of Alstom in another location in order to qualify IIRC or so the report then went . Perhaps better informed members can weigh in.

If It not mistaken the contract for handling of this entire lime has also been given to a German company..



Siemens contract goes back to then GE, Alstom and Siemens show. IR at that time allowed GE to build WDG-6 and Alstom for the WAP-12. Siemens were given a bone. After that we allowed Siemens to open another plant. This incident occured during former Rail Min time. During the same time Rail Loco factories came with multiple prototypes. But none of them went into serial production.

Since this is IR, especially in Passenger division these guys don't know anything to run.
 

View: https://twitter.com/Indrani1_Roy/status/1898105439591842275?s=19


View: https://twitter.com/Indrani1_Roy/status/1898105532961243403?s=19

Ashwini Vaishnaw was associated with Siemens after he quit the IAS & before Modi invited him to join the cabinet .

Now I'm not insinuating anything but our infrastructure spending as far as IR goes is totally lopsided with no long term strategy as to what can we extract from F-OEMs with a view to build up our tech firms in this sector thru absorption of technology .

This was clearly seen in the case of Alstom being awarded the RRTS contract between Delhi & Meerut, where Train -18 was denied participation on grounds of experience in running such trains if you can believe it , while Alstom carried out plenty of modifications on an existing design from some other branch of Alstom in another location in order to qualify IIRC or so the report then went . Perhaps better informed members can weigh in.

If It not mistaken the contract for handling of this entire lime has also been given to a German company..

Fresh designs vs upgradation or changes of existing ages old designs.

Also, companies like Siemens, GE will invest money, built latest upto world standard factories and work culture.​
 
Holi rush: Central Railway suspends platform ticket sales at six major Mumbai stations

09 March,2025 10:58 AM IST | Mumbai | Rajendra B. Aklekar


Extra crowds expected during Holi season to be contained in waiting areas, say officials

The Central Railway on Saturday said it is restricting the sale of platform tickets at six stations - Mumbai CSMT, Dadar, Kurla LTT, Thane and Kalyan Panvel - for a few days to avoid extra crowding during the Holi festival season. "In view of extra crowds on platforms due to the upcoming Holi festival, sale of platform tickets has been restricted from March 8 to 16 to avoid excessive crowding and any untoward incident," a senior CR official said.


At a high-level meeting on Friday headed by minister of railways Ashwini Vaishnaw on crowd control at stations, a number of key decisions were taken, including creation of permanent waiting areas outside stations at 60 stations across the country which periodically face heavy crowds. With the concept, crowd surge will be contained within the waiting area. Passengers will be allowed to go to platforms only when the trains arrive.


"There is also a plan of complete access control at these 60 identified stations where only passengers with confirmed reserved tickets only will be given direct access to the platforms and passengers without a ticket or on the waiting list will wait in the outside waiting area. Also, two new designs of 12-metre-wide (40 feet) and six-metre-wide (20 feet) standard FOB have been developed. Besides cameras for monitoring crowds, up-to-date digital communication equipment like walkie-talkies and calling systems will be installed at heavy crowd stations," a senior official said.

"The station director will get financial empowerment so that he can take on-the-spot decisions for improving the station. He will also be empowered to control the sale of tickets" the official added.
 
GOI needs to follow mini-Airports model when it comes to railways.
1. Ticket counters outside
2. Allow only ticket holders inside
2a. In case minors and elderly need help to board, allow one person along with them. Link platform tickets to trains.
3. Link all tickets, including GC ones to trains. Sell only a certain amount of GC tickets.
4. Have separate platforms for local trains, de-linked to trains on long journeys
5. Every train station should have security constantly monitoring passengers in the station and checking their tickets.

We all need to remember, just because you sell 1000 tickets does not mean a train and train station can fit all of them. The physics will never work.
It will only end in disaster.
It's better for person or family miss the journey than risk lives.
It seems the powers that be read your post.

 
It seems the powers that be read your post.

Hope they continue this forever especially in festive season or during summer vacation otherwise all too often these measures continue for 2-3 months then things revert till the next tragedy strikes.
 
Hope they continue this forever especially in festive season or during summer vacation otherwise all too often these measures continue for 2-3 months then things revert till the next tragedy strikes.
How they implemented??
 
It seems the powers that be read your post.


They copy pasted my solution and did not pay me a rupee.

The solution was not something unique, happens all the time in many industries.
When you treat Railways like an industry and treat the issue as a capacity & capability issue, the short term and long term solutions are not that hard to find.

The solutions proposed are short term ones, the long term ones need lot of investment, which can be good news for BJP.
 
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In fact small village level stations where should have 4 exit at max. Two on normal extra two on rush time. Those were low hanging fruits. Hope they slowly shut the entry exit so we don't have this issue of Transgender people harassing the shit out of people, unknown samosa seller with shit quality product. Unwanted crooks into trains.
 
Costs have soared and completion has been pushed back to 2031 as India and Japan disagree over signalling and the cost of rolling stock. Srinand Jha reports.

March 14, 2025

THE latest revised cost of building India’s first high-speed line, running for 508km from Mumbai to Ahmedabad, is understood to have risen to Rs 2 trillion ($US 24.3bn) and the timeline for completion extended to 2031.

The original cost estimate for the project was Rs 960bn and the target completion date fixed for 2024. The cost was revised upwards to Rs 1.08 trillion following the decision to build the new line on viaduct due to poor ground conditions on sections of the route, including near Bharuch and Baroda in Gujarat state.

The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) that is delivering the project recently informed the Railway Board that costs have increased due to a range of factors, including slow progress during the Covid-19 pandemic and the fluctuating exchange rate between the Rupee and the Yen.

Internal estimates prepared by Indian Railways (IR) suggest that delays have caused losses to escalate by 5% compared with the project cost. On this basis, building the high-speed line is likely to produce a loss of Rs 100bn a year.

NHSRCL’s official position is that the cost of the project and the timeline for delivering it cannot be determined at this point. In a report published on March 10 by the Indian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Railways, IR officials are quoted as saying: “Timelines and costs can only be ascertained after finalisation of all contract packages, completion of all associated work timelines related to civil structures, track, electric power supply, signalling and telecommunications, and the supply of rolling stock.”

Civil works on the project have progressed rapidly, with overall physical progress standing at 48.55% in January for expenditure of Rs 711.16bn. The main cause of delay at present is the failure to decide on two key issues: the type of rolling stock and the signalling system to be deployed on the new line.

On the understanding that Japanese technology will be used, 80% of the project cost is being funded by a 50-year loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), bearing interest at 0.1% and with a 20-year moratorium on repayment. Of the remainder, 50% will be provided by the Indian government and 50% by the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

At a recent meeting of the inter-ministerial group overseeing the project, the Japanese delegation is understood to have informed its Indian counterparts that it would not be possible to deliver Shinkansen high-speed trains before 2030, as India has yet to order them. A total of 400 cars are needed to operate as eight and 16-car trains.

India has been attempting to persuade Japan to reduce its price of Rs 200bn for the new trains, but so far without success. Within the Ministry of Railways, it is felt in some quarters that high-speed trains could be procured from European manufacturers at approximately half the cost. However, this could prove problematic for India, as integrating European rolling stock with Japanese signalling technology is unlikely to provide the best solution.

The Indian government would also need to pay upfront for new trains from Alstom or Siemens, whereas the Japanese trains will be funded by the soft loan from Jica, repayable in 50 years. In addition to training for high-speed operations, Indian engineers are already preparing to work on domestic production of Shinkansen components in the long term, while the agreement between India and Japan specifies that at least 50% of components will be procured from Japanese companies.

In what appears as an attempt by India to pressure Japan to reduce the price of the new high-speed fleet, IR subsidiary Integral Coach Factory (ICF) awarded a Rs 8.7bn contract in October to the state-owned Bharat Earth Movers (BEML) to supply two trains with a maximum speed of 280km/h.

Depending on the success of the two prototypes, these domestically-designed trains will be deployed on India’s first high-speed line. BEML will partner with Medha Servo Drives, which developed the traction system of IR’s Vande Bharat EMU, and is reported to have appointed EC Engineering of Poland as engineering design consultant. It is expected that other electrical systems and onboard signalling equipment will be supplied by Siemens.

The BEML trains could serve as a stop-gap in order to conduct trials on the 50km Surat - Bilimoria section, or potentially operate over the entire 508km high-speed line at an average speed of around 180km/h. However, BEML is understood to have informed IR that it will not be possible for deliveries to start before 2028, meaning that passenger services on the Mumbai - Ahmedabad high-speed line are unlikely to begin before 2029, even at a lower speed.


Japan and India have also been unable to reach agreement on the signalling system for the new line. Japan has insisted on the leaky feeder or radiating cable technology used on Shinkansen lines, while the Indian government has been contemplating the use of ETCS Level 2.

The latter, developed in Europe, is now in operation in India on the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) commuter line in Delhi, and the contract awarded to BEML includes provision to install ETCS Level 2 on the new 280km/h trains.


Japan and India may have reached an impasse for the time being, but the silver lining is that neither of the two countries can walk away from the deal. It is therefore possible and likely that a middle way will be found to resolve these contentious issues.

 
1742202343528.webp
 
They copy pasted my solution and did not pay me a rupee.

The solution was not something unique, happens all the time in many industries.
When you treat Railways like an industry and treat the issue as a capacity & capability issue, the short term and long term solutions are not that hard to find.

The solutions proposed are short term ones, the long term ones need lot of investment, which can be good news for BJP.
How they implemented ? is some gated scanner like metro ??
 

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