Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Suraj »

Suraj wrote:Got to ride on the E5/E6 Hayabusa Shinkansen today . Same train set meant for the Mumbai Ahmedabad HSR . What a sweet ride. Barely feels like it’s moving even at full speed (320km/h on Tohoku Shinkansen line, same as intended top speed for Mumbai-Ahmedabad). Will ride the N700s on the Tokaido line a few days from now. Also rode the older E4 Yamabiko Shinkansen . These trains and tracks are noticeably smoother than the German ICE and other Euro HSRs I’ve ridden in the past .
Riding the Tokaido line in an N700A Nozomi service now. Still the same rock solid product, smooth enough for women to do makeup easily. I’m glad we get the E5/E6 trainsets from JR East instead of the N700As from JR Central though - the former are just a little cooler looking.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by SBajwa »

EswarPrakash wrote:Gurus,

Something strange happened when I booked a ticket through IRCTC using my phoren card from UQ. Not sure what to make of it. I had given my UQ phone number to ensure that my bank knows it was not a fraad transaction.

I got a call from someone in "Mumbai" (because it had a Mumbai number, not sure if it was spoofed) and spoke to me in an extremely bad English (not the accent, but the grammar) and asked me if I booked "ticket India, India. Yesterday?". I am not sure if it was from Toiletistan or some plain old money scammer trying to find more info about me or my bank details.

Not sure what to make of it, but I am a little bit spooked.
Check your card and let us know if anything bad happened
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by rajkumar »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvDLYZ1 ... tion=share

TED Ex Presentation By Sudhanshu Mani on Train 18
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by hnair »

Suraj-san, envy your rides over in those curvy snouted beauties!

Meanwhile, there is a move to get a semi-HSR going on from Trivandrum to Kasargode. I feel it is kind of a hare-brained one, with ideas of a greenfield track between Trivandrum and Kochi lightly thrown in :lol: Yours' truly stood up among the adulating crowd and asked uncomfortable questions about LA issues, during a townhall here. The MD of the SPV formed for this claimed the tracks will run on pillars over existing alignment, if LA is an issue :rotfl:

Bill is a very light 50,000 Cr. So I asked why not have a DFC-SDRE towards the east, away from the thickly populated coastal-urban regions (so LA cost is much, much lower) and thereby reliving the stress on the existing tracks by rerouting most of long distance and goods trains, while speeding up the route speed of existing older tracks with incremental upgrades of signaling and track. Maybe the cost can be bought down from 50,000cr and the trains will still whizz through current dense population centers without much fanfare.

He: "we should think out of baaaux", to thundering applause from the babu-heavy crowd. Politicos are pushing for this from all parties. Looks like a lucre-fest for all sides through next decade, if it gets funded
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

hnair wrote:Suraj-san, envy your rides over in those curvy snouted beauties!

Meanwhile, there is a move to get a semi-HSR going on from Trivandrum to Kasargode. I feel it is kind of a hare-brained one, with ideas of a greenfield track between Trivandrum and Kochi lightly thrown in :lol: Yours' truly stood up among the adulating crowd and asked uncomfortable questions about LA issues, during a townhall here. The MD of the SPV formed for this claimed the tracks will run on pillars over existing alignment, if LA is an issue :rotfl:

Bill is a very light 50,000 Cr. So I asked why not have a DFC-SDRE towards the east, away from the thickly populated coastal-urban regions (so LA cost is much, much lower) and thereby reliving the stress on the existing tracks by rerouting most of long distance and goods trains, while speeding up the route speed of existing older tracks with incremental upgrades of signaling and track. Maybe the cost can be bought down from 50,000cr and the trains will still whizz through current dense population centers without much fanfare.

He: "we should think out of baaaux", to thundering applause from the babu-heavy crowd. Politicos are pushing for this from all parties. Looks like a lucre-fest for all sides through next decade, if it gets funded
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: I had posted about this scheme many posts above. KL gov has supposedly asked Systra to do a traffic analysis and preliminary report for this HSR. In the mean time doing the 18km of doubling left on IR between Trivandrum and Kochi between the block sections Ettamanoor--- Kottayam---- Chingavanam has proved to be a nightmare. This is the only single lined section between Mangalore and Trivandrum. Currently the single line passes through a tunnel. They want to select a new alignment and do away with the tunnel near Kottayam and do the doubling and use the old tunnel as a shunting neck. State Govt as usual did not help with LA, went on and on and finally this Nov. has given IR the land needed to finish the doubling project on the most important line in Kerala. It will now take IR two years to finish the construction for this last 18 kms. The old ROB at Kottayam has been demolished and a new one erected in preparation for the doubling works and also yet another new ROB has to be constructed. First dammit construct a double line over the existing alignment and then talk of pillars, poles and rods over the existing alignment.

The other parallel doubling project between Kochi and Trivandrum via Allapuzzha(Allepey) has gotten into such a mess due to LA issues that IR has thrown its hands up in the air. It may take more than a decade to finish off if at that. A tiny piece is doubled near Haripad.
Last edited by vsunder on 30 Dec 2019 19:36, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by JayS »

rajkumar wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvDLYZ1 ... tion=share

TED Ex Presentation By Sudhanshu Mani on Train 18
Very Inspiring. He is a doer and thus he thrashes the boggy of ToT. LOL.

I always wondered why IR is not re-hiring him on contract and put back on Train-18/20 program with empowered post. He could be the next Sreedharan.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by chetak »

piyush goel's tweet


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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by A Nandy »

With more than 11,400 in service, I wonder if that's enough for replacement even.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by A Nandy »

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/in ... s?from=mdr
The target of the latest reform is apparent: the government transporter, which ferries 23 million passengers a day, must pick up speed instead of just chugging along.

Explaining the rationale behind the government’s move, Railway Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav told ET Magazine that the servicewise split on the board, with each member holding on to her turf, had become a major hurdle in the Railways’ expansion. “A member’s viewpoint, in the present set-up, is considered final as far as her department is concerned. The chairman only coordinates inter-departmental issues and takes some policy decisions. At times, such a division of power at the board level is detrimental to the Railways’ growth,” says Yadav, whose tenure has been extended by one year till December 31, 2020, paving the way for his becoming IR’s first CEO.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Suraj »

A Nandy wrote:With more than 11,400 in service, I wonder if that's enough for replacement even.
CLW only manufactured electric locos . How many of those 11400 are electric ones ?
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Vips »

Is there any info on the breakdown of the HP/Haulage capacity of the news ones being manufactured versus that of the old ones that need replacement?
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Vips »

Bharat Electronics commissions real time train information system for Indian Railways.

Bharat Electronics Ltd, a public sector undertaking, has commissioned the first phase of the real time train information system for Indian Railways to increase its operational efficiency and improve passenger safety.

The system has been commissioned through the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS), under the technical guidance of Space Applications Centre at ISRO.

RTIS provides real-time positional information of locomotives to the Railways. It facilitates automatic acquisition of train movement data, including that of arrival, departure and runthrough timings, at the stations en route.

The control chart of trains, which has RTIS-enabled locomotives, gets plotted automatically in the Control Office Application system of the Railways.
The Train Controllers can, without any manual intervention, accurately track the location and speed of RTIS-enabled locomotives and trains. Not only does the system facilitate smooth control of trains, but it also optimises traffic management, improves operational efficiency and pre-empts accidents.

The technology of the Locomotive Device has been developed in India. The entire application software, including the HUB Network Monitoring System (NMS), has been developed inhouse by Bharat Electronics.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Ashokk »

Pay me Rs 2L/month, I’ll fix railway systems, scamster tells RPF
NEW DELHI: In an interesting twist to the multi-crore rail e-ticketing racket, its mastermind has reached out to the Railway Police Force (RPF) chief claiming “huge gaps” in the transport behemoth’s IT security system.
The main accused, Hamid Ashraf, who is in Dubai, has claimed that nabbing him or some people won’t put an end to such rackets as others can develop similar ‘illegal’ software and use them by taking advantage of the security loopholes in the IRCTC’s system.
RPF is working on a strategy to catch Ashraf, after the recent arrest of another key player in this racket Ghulam Mustafa. Ashraf had fled the country after jumping bail in 2016. He was arrested in a similar rail e-ticketing fraud when he was in Class XII.
In a series of WhatsApp broadcasts, Ashraf claimed that he had repeatedly flagged loopholes in the IT security system developed by government-owned Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), which IRCTC uses for ticketing. “The agencies did not take measures to plug the loopholes and so how can you hold me responsible? People did not pay heed to the details I had shared with them; all of them thought I was mad,” he said in the text messages addressed to RPF director general Arun Kumar.
From the messages, it appeared that Ashraf reached out to RPF DG after his press conference where he said that the money was suspected to be used for terror financing. “If you give interviews to TV channels like this, no one will marry me,” he said.
Pointing out that the government agencies were unable to fix “such a security issue” even after he shared details through “more than 500 emails and WhatApp messages”, he said this had raised serious questions about their ability to deal with critical cyber security issues.
“We are concerned about any lapses that can be exploited by criminals and anti-national elements. We have been flagging this issue and have urged the departments concerned to take measures,” an official said.
In his messages, Ashraf, who is believed to have been trained by an IT expert, has offered help to the railways, IRCTC and CRIS to secure the system. “Give me a chance, I will secure the IRCTC system and CRIS. Arresting me won’t help as there will be 10 more to come out with such software... I am not guilty or wrong so I am posting these details,” he said. The accused even went to the extent of saying that the railways can hire him at Rs 2 lakh monthly salary as an ‘ethical’ hacker as IT giants do.
Claiming that he has deactivated and withdrawn the illegal software that he had sold to many, he said, “I want this tension to end so that I can enjoy my life with my girlfriend…Sir, please bachha ko maaf kardijiye. Life mein dubara railways ke software nehin banaoonga. (Please excuse me for this. I will never develop any such software for railways).” :mrgreen:
The accused listed out several steps that the railways, IRCTC and CRIS could take to ensure that none can bypass IT security system.
“You allow two tickets in a day per IP address. Similarly why don’t you fix only one IRCTC ID that can be logged on to the system per IP address. People log into the system with 50 IRCTC IDs generated from one IP address and until you address this, common people will keep suffering,” Ashraf said.
On in the issue of bypassing of Captcha and OTP, he claimed that he had sent the details about the bug used for this to banks and IRCTC.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by chetak »

twitter


Indian Railways the Most economical.

Indian Railways fares less than those in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh!

https://www.financialexpress.com/infras ... e/1831170/


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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by nandakumar »

The smart way to increase passenger revenue per kilometre is to marginally increase the amenities but significantly increase the rail fares. For example, increase the number of 3 tier AC coaches while simultaneously reducing the number of non AC coaches. It is relatively easier to sell the notion of a fare increase in the AC segment than the non AC segment. It can also rejig the telescopic fare structure to make extra long distance travel a bit more expensive. Railways have a huge advantage in overnight journeys compared to air travel. For instance Chennai Hyderabad if it is made a 9 hour journey it can wean away a significant chunk of business travellers to shift to Railways. Give them AC first class comfort then you can charge more. Tell senior officers to use Air India and release those seats for fare paying passengers. Make AC first class a luxury experience (not quite the Palace on wheels luxuty) but affordable enough for a large number of middle class passengers who could savour the experience of leisurely travel. The basic idea is to maximise total revenue per rake rather than per revenue per kilometre .
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by nandakumar »

https://theconversation.com/could-sleep ... vel-130334
After my last post came across this link. KLM has launched an ad campaign advising its customers to fly 'responsibly '! It is asking people to take the night trains.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Peregrine »

A Nandy wrote:With more than 11,400 in service, I wonder if that's enough for replacement even.
Suraj wrote:CLW only manufactured electric locos . How many of those 11400 are electric ones ?
Suraj Ji :

INDIAN RAILWAYS YEAR BOOK : 2017-18

Year Book 2017-2018 - Item 14. Rolling Stock – Page 85

STEAM : 39 - DIESEL : 6,086 - ELECTRIC : 5,639 = TOTAL 11,764

Cheers Image
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Manish_P »

It's not just scamming.. there appear to be terror links as well

India’s biggest ticketing gang busted, 26 arrested, top boss hiding in Dubai
Ashraf was arrested in 2016 in Gonda in UP in a ticketing scam and investigators believe he was also involved in a 2019 bomb blast in UP.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by saip »

Don't they have to pay in advance to reserve the tickets? Then if they want to cancel don't they have to pay a penalty (atleast 200 or so)? If the markup is only 200-500 how much money can they make unless they sell ALL the tickets they bought? I normally buy my tickets from the USA a few weeks ahead and never had any problem, though I did notice vacant berths when I traveled when the system said everything is full.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Vips »

Smart move by Indian Railways! All train coaches, wagons to be RFID tagged by 2021.

Two works for the implementation of the RFID project have been sanctioned by the Railway Board for a total of Rs 112.96 crore.Indian Railways has decided to fit all rolling stock, including around 3,50,000 coaches and wagons with RFID tags by 2021.

In a bid to accurately and automatically track rolling stock as it moves railway network, Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways has decided to fit all rolling stock, including around 3,50,000 coaches and wagons with RFID tags by 2021. An RFID tag is basically an electronic tag that can exchange data with an RFID reader through radio waves. Two works for the implementation of the RFID project have been sanctioned by the Railway Board for a total of Rs 112.96 crore. According to details shared by Indian Railways, so far nearly 22,000 wagons and 1,200 coaches have been equipped with RFID tags.

In addition to this, around 3,500 fixed RFID readers are likely to be introduced, which will communicate to a central control center using GS1’s low-level reader protocol (LLRP) standard. The RFID project has been undertaken under ‘Make in India’ initiative by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), the IT arm of the national transporter.

IRCTC Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas Express a hit among passengers; records over 90% occupancyIRCTC Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas Express a hit among passengers; records over 90% occupancyTrains on demand! Indian Railways private trains plan in full steam; Bombardier, Alstom, Talgo show interestTrains on demand! Indian Railways private trains plan in full steam; Bombardier, Alstom, Talgo show interest

The technology is expected to help Indian Railways track each of its coaches and wagons as a result of which, wherever necessary, the coaches and wagons can be suitably deployed in a timely manner. The RFID tag will provide the wagon number as well as all information about it, including its past history. According to Indian Railways, the system will reduce network congestion, avoid issues of connectivity along with better utilization of assets.

Interestingly, the RFID tags can be used in all the locations across the country including those regions with poor connectivity. The national transporter has opted to use the GIAI-202 standard as GIAI202 encoded tags, designed by CRIS has been successfully field-tested at a speed of 182.7 km per hour. With this, Indian Railways has been included in the league of leaders with respect to Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) technology in the railway sector.

The system includes the integration of RFID readers with various equipment like trackside condition monitoring equipment, train presence detectors, etc. The combination of all of these will enable an early identification of rolling stock that may require maintenance. With this, Indian Railways will be able to improve the reliability of its rolling stock, thereby shifting from time-based maintenance to condition-based maintenance.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by nandakumar »

saip wrote:Don't they have to pay in advance to reserve the tickets? Then if they want to cancel don't they have to pay a penalty (atleast 200 or so)? If the markup is only 200-500 how much money can they make unless they sell ALL the tickets they bought? I normally buy my tickets from the USA a few weeks ahead and never had any problem, though I did notice vacant berths when I traveled when the system said everything is full.
The scam must at the core, involve penetrating the IRCTC Computer and substituting fictitious identities with real identities once a black market customer materialises on the scene. Once this condition is satisfied the rest is a function of market force. Given right demand and black market premiums a perfectly feasible business model exists. For instance a high premium obtained from such bookings can outweigh losses from cancellation.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Sachin »

saip wrote:Don't they have to pay in advance to reserve the tickets? Then if they want to cancel don't they have to pay a penalty (atleast 200 or so)? If the markup is only 200-500 how much money can they make unless they sell ALL the tickets they bought?
Trains in certain trunk routes in Indian Railways always run full. The touts have a very clear understanding on which are those trains, and expert touts even can predict the rush season (based on holidays, special events etc.). So with this information in hand, touts can easily book tickets in advance and then be assured that they will never have to cancel them :). A very simple scam which was unearthed in my part of the woods. The tout books tickets (for 6 PAX max) with one original chap with ID proof and all the rest having ficticious names. These 5 slots are given to passengers at a jacked up price. On the day of travel the tout's agent also boards the train with the 5 other passengers. The TTE generally only checks the ID of one person when travelling in a group, and the tout's agent would volunteer to be that person 8).
I normally buy my tickets from the USA a few weeks ahead and never had any problem, though I did notice vacant berths when I traveled when the system said everything is full.
Those could be berths which is ear-marked for stations mid way between the origin and destination. Or could be berths kept aside under some quota. One thing I have noticed in a few trains is that few seats in the AC III coach is kept aside for the "running staff" (i.e drivers).
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by chetak »

twitter
20 Firms Including Alstom, Bombardier, Talgo Evince Keen Interest In Indian Railway’s 150 Private Trains Plan https://swarajyamag.com/insta/20-firms- ... rains-plan via @swarajyamag
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by NRao »

chetak
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by chetak »

twitter

RailTel, in only 46 months, achieved the target of connecting 5,500 stations with free high-speed WiFi.

Beat this! Indian Railways has built one of the world’s largest free public WiFi networks



Image

Beat this! Indian Railways has built one of the world’s largest free public WiFi networks
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by chetak »

Piyush Goyal @PiyushGoyal
Take a look at Karnataka's first Automatic Railway Coach Washing Plant installed at Bengaluru City Railway Station.

Reducing water, cost, time & manpower required, the plant paves the way for clean coaches for passengers in an efficient & eco-friendly manner.


https://twitter.com/PiyushGoyal/status/ ... 8735738880

SWR will commission two more similar plants at YPR and BYPL Terminals shortly
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by chetak »

twitter

Exclusive: Indian Railways To Float RFQ Inviting Private Players To Operate 150 Trains On 100 Routes By Feb End, Haulage Charges at Rs 668/km @IndiaInfraHub @aaykaydee
https://indiainfrahub.com/2020/railways ... rs-668-km/



Alstom, Bombardier, Siemens, Hyundai, Hitachi and CRRC (Chinese) among top global players expected to enter the race to run private trains
Among Indian companies, Tata Realty and Infra, Medha, Bharat Forge, BEML, IRCTC, RK Associates, Gatx, Essel Group, Adani Ports likely to bid
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Vips »

Aluminium Coaches: Indian Railways to acquire new tech for passenger trains.

Indian Railways gears up for world-class aluminium coaches! Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways has awarded a Transfer of Technology (ToT) contract to a Korean company for the development of capabilities for production to the commissioning of aluminium-bodied coaches. The complete redesign of Indian Railways train coaches, as well as procurement of full train rakes from foreign suppliers for Indian Railways, are not in the Railway Ministry’s plan. However, the ToT has been awarded by the Modern Coach Factory in Rae Bareli to acquire the capability to make world-class aluminium coaches.

This ToT includes development (prototyping), designing, manufacturing as well as testing of aluminium body passenger coaches of eight variants. Out of the eight variants, five variants are of broad gauge loco-hauled coaches, while three variants are of standard gauge metro coaches. Financial Express Online had earlier reported that the aluminium-bodied coaches may be capable of attaining speeds of up to 250 kmph – in line with Indian Railways dream of semi-high speed train travel.

On the basis of these facilities, the manufacturing of Indian Railways coaches shall be done at the Modern Coach Factory and not through import, according to the information provided by Railway Minister. Recently, Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha stated that as of now there is no plan to start the import of complete train sets for Indian Railways from foreign suppliers. The Integral Coach Factory of Indian Railways, located in Chennai, has initiated the procurement process only for propulsion equipment as well as control system for manufacturing of as many as 44 train sets of the Vande Bharat category.

Last month it was reported that the Integral Coach Factory has beaten its last year’s target of coach production. The factory had beaten its last year’s outturn of 3,262 number of coaches in just a duration of 9 months 13 days. Besides this, the coach manufacturing factory is now on its way to cross 4,000 mark by the month of March 2020. Moreover, the factory eyes to cross the 5000 mark in coach production, next year. A few months ago, the factory had turned out its 3000th coach of the year in less than nine months’ time. The Integral Coach Factory was declared the world’s largest coach factory last year.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by A Nandy »

First Ever 100m Tall Pier Bridge on Jiribam-Imphal Rail Project has been launched successfully on 14th February 2020. Hopeful of the line reaching Imphal by 2022.

https://twitter.com/NBirenSingh/status/ ... 1726516224

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Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Peregrine »

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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by A Nandy »

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The world’s second largest Operation Control Centre (OCS) for trains to carry goods is all set to be inaugurated by the end of this month by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Built at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, the centre will be the ‘nerve-centre’ of the eastern dedicated freight corridor.

The eastern dedicated freight corridor is approximately 1,800 km-long, running from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni near Kolkata, passing through Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. The corridor is targeted to be completed by December 2021.
https://swarajyamag.com/news-brief/worl ... ed-to-know
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by A Nandy »

With an emphasis on providing rail connectivity to the entire North-Eastern (NE) region, Indian Railways has accelerated the work connecting state capitals of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. The states have been connected by a Broad Gauge (BG) rail network.

As per Vision Document 2020, the government has undertaken a major exercise to connect all state capitals of North-East by 2020 except Sikkim with railway connectivity.

In Sikkim also, new linework has been sanctioned from Sivok in West Bengal up to Rangpo in Sikkim in the first phase.

Since the rail connectivity plays an important role in the development process, railways have taken up several projects in the NE region and allocated a higher budget in the last five years for this purpose, said a senior Railway Ministry official responsible for monitoring the North-East projects.

According to the railways’ data, as on April 2019, the national transporter has taken up 20 (14 New lines and six doubling) projects of a total length of 1786 Km, costing Rs 73,214 crore in North East region, which are in different stages of planning, sanction and execution.
https://indiainfrahub.com/2020/commenta ... orth-east/
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by saip »

I cancelled my trains tickets for 4/9 couple of weeks ago before the cancellation of trains. There was a little cancllatoion charge. Today the railways proactively refunded that too. Hats off to them though I wish they did not. Better than many western airlines who only gave credit.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Mollick.R »

Covid-19: Indian Railways Converts 2,500 Rail Coaches Into Isolation Wards In 10 Days; Can House 40,000 Patients

by IANS - Apr 06 2020, 5:54 pm

With novel coronavirus cases on the increase in the country, the Railways has so far converted over 2,500 coaches into isolation wards in 10 days since the nationwide lockdown began.

A Railway Ministry spokesperson said on Monday that initially the plan is to convert 5,000 coaches for use as isolation wards.

The official said that different railway zones have completed an almost impossible task by conversions of so many coaches into isolation wards in a small period amid a lockdown, when manpower resources are limited and have to be rationalised and rotated.

"With the conversion of around 2,500 coaches, 40,000 isolation beds are now ready for meeting any medical contingency," he said.

"On an average, 375 rail coaches are being converted daily at 133 locations across the country."

The isolation ward coaches are equipped as per medical advisories.

This news has been published via Syndicate feed. Only the headline has been changed.

https://swarajyamag.com/insta/covid-19- ... 0-patients
Mollick.R
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Mollick.R »

As per this Business Standard article dated August 22, 2018
"Indian Railway has some 63000 Coaches. The Railways produces 3,000 coaches, and phases out 1,000 coaches every year."

https://www.business-standard.com/artic ... 360_1.html

This article says we ramped up our annual production of coaches to 6000+ for year 2019-20.

https://www.financialexpress.com/infras ... n/1533981/


Few points to ponder upon

1. Previously somewhere I read that they are going to convert only the sleeper class coaches for this purpose.

2. So if they convert some 5000+ coaches as isolation wards for ChineseVirus19 it is roughly coming out to be 8% of our total coach capacity.
Unable to get IRs exact number of sleeper coaches out of IR's total Rolling Stock Coaching vehicles numbers. So not sure how this "8%" fits into w.r.t that data.

3. Hope they are selectively converting the end of service life ICF coaches. Are they ???

4. As per media reports we are discarding 1000 number of coaches each year, How many sleeper coach ??

5. When the lockdown is lifted (even if it done gradually & phased manner) there will be a sudden rush of travelling activity due to lots of people stuck at various places. How it will affect our travelling pattern as will have 5000 less number of coaches to begin with. As i assume all may not be returned for service immediately & may require extensive decontamination after being used as isolation wards.

6. When Lockdown is lifted after the initial rush, due to economic slowdown and reduced business activity there may be less number of travellers across country. So may not be reaching our peak travellers number immediately.

7. May be it also depends on A) Zone wise number of sleeper coaches supplied B) Exact time when total lockdown is lifted C) Festivals or corp sowing time falling with that time etc etc.

Picklu wrote: It can not be more official than this.
Our power grid consumption in normal times are 270+ GW. The system working at 117 GW is operating at roughly 43% capacity.
Even at this level, it could go down to 31% i.e. a drop of staggering 28%

Please tell me a single system any one of you have designed/created/operated that is capable of handling such fluctuations within matter of 10/15 minutes.

This is a bloody 28% drop on a system already running at 43% capacity!!!
Beyond any back of the envelop calculations thrown around for switching off light bulbs!!!! Yeah, right! 2-3% indeed!!!

As I said, it was really a stress test of the system; and a pretty brutal one.

We did such a stress test for our finance and accounting infra via demonetization.

Corona is already doing such a test of our public health infra.

I think we can consider this too as another stress test on our railways transportation system
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Zynda »

This is actually pretty cool...good job by IR for making use of lockdown to do excellent productivity. To me this shows a lot of initiatives by IR management, staff & perhaps Railway Minister himself.

Railways turns lockdown crisis into a 'once in a lifetime opportunity', completes pending maintenance work
The Indian Railways has used the lockdown period and the resultant suspension of passenger services to address long-pending maintenance work on the rail network, the national transporter said in a statement on Saturday. This, it said, would improve safety and operational efficiencies.

Around 500 modern heavy duty Track Maintenance Machines along with track, signal and Overhead Equipment (OHE) maintainers have worked regularly for 10,749 machine days to complete overdue track maintenance of 12,270 km plain track, it said.

Ultrasonic flaw detection (USFD) of 30,182 km of track and 1,34,443 rail welds has been carried out with USFD machine.

"Indian Railways planned these works during lockdown period considering it 'Once in a lifetime opportunity' to wipe out these maintenance arrears and take up the execution of work without affecting the train service," it said.

Health of the track has been monitored through periodic runs of Oscillation Monitoring System (OMS) cumulating 1,92,488 km of track at 5,362 peak locations indicated by OMS test has been attended to ensure proper quality.

Critical summer precaution activities like de-stressing of long welded rail (LWR) which involved huge men power has been taken up with a new procedure for carrying out the work with ensuring social distancing norms. A total of 2,246 km of de-stressing of LWR has been done.

Critical summer precaution activities like de-stressing of long welded rail (LWR) which involved huge men power has been taken up with a new procedure for carrying out the work with ensuring social distancing norms. A total of 2,246 km of de-stressing of LWR has been done.

Important bridge works include re-girdering of Bridge No. 86 on Tunga River near Shivamogga Town, dismantling of Road Over Bridge (ROB) near Chennai Station, construction of bridge in Rajahmundry-Vishakhapatnam section, launching of 6 Foot Over Bridges (FOBs) under Bhusawal division among others, according to the statement.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

^^^ Elephant Gate bridge approaching Chennai Central a major bottleneck will be torn down. Current overbridge only allows 8 lines to get through causing severe detention between Basin Bridge and Central. The old parcel depot Salt Cotaurs is also gone and maybe that space there should be utilized. Parcel specials will depart from Egmore when the demolitions takes place. Many FOBs in the Mumbai suburban area deemed unsafe by a IIT Bombay audit are also getting demolished during the lockdown and also major desilting and cleaning of nullahs preparatory to monsoons on the Mumbai-Karjat-Lonavala ghat section. They are building additional steel extensions of tunnel portals to protect against rocks and boulders falling on the line in the Bhor ghat, Pune-Mumbai. RUB by pushing method is also taking place at several places like on SWR between Birur and Chikjajur and bridge span erection is also taking place. Sivamogga bridge was a MG era bridge which was not strengthened when gauge converted. Lockdown is allowing them to re-girder and replace with spans that will allow 25 ton axle load freight to run on the new bridge post re-girdering. Some loco sheds have a skeleton staff looking after locos and giving them trial runs. Some loco sheds are in the middle of a hotspot like Royapuram in Chennai. Jiribam-Imphal railway bridge girder launching is now complete on the tallest bridge.

Yard remodeling has taken place at several stations during the lull due to the lockdown. Bangalore city SBC completed a major yard re-modeling that will help in train movement towards Maisuru and Yeshwantpur. Social distancing norms were followed during the remodeling.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cit ... 808000.cms

Other stations were such work was carried out was Vadodara.


Nagpur-Mumbai expressway work is going on.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Other infra improvement during the lockdown

1. Replacement of wooden sleepers dating from 1970 at scissors crossing in Kazipet yard to improve train speed through the yard. Replaced with concrete PSC sleepers.

2. Track renewal and replacement of crossings and various points in Vijayawada(BZA) yard to allow faster movement of trains through that yard.

3. Vadodara yard replacement of concrete aprons on Lines 1 and 2 and renewal of crossing points.

4. Bangalore yard already mentioned above ^^
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

This video explains why the Elephant Gate bridge outside Chennai central is being demolished ^^^^.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JgXUhcAnbw

The bridge is about 150 years old and decrepit. There is a permanent speed restriction of 30kmph for it. It is 50m long. The new bridge is planned to be 150m long and higher and will be a steel bridge. The 150m length will allow several more lines to enter Chennai instead of the 8 currently due to this bridge. Simultaneous arrivals of several trains and departures of trains both long distance and local can be planned. The video also talks about a plan to activate the old Salt Cotaurs parcel terminal that is being used as administrative offices of SR as a new terminal for Chennai from where trains towards Bangalore and Coimbatore can originate. This Salt Cotaurs is next to the Elephant gate bridge.

Demolition has to be done by cutting and lifting pieces rather than explosive charges because of possible damage to the OHE and track below. The demolition was scheduled for completion May 3rd and you can see in the video the demolition taking place. The current bridge is too low and pieces fall off it on to the tracks necessitating a permanent speed restriction.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

The bridge over River Bhima is one of the longest railway bridges in Karnataka. Bhima forms the riparian boundary between MH and KA. This line was a MG line until a few years ago. It was gauge converted. Now within 4 years not only has doubling started and completed between Solapur and Wandal(beyond Bijapur) , but electrification end to end between Gadag and Solapur is also taking place. Doubling is ongoing all the way to Gadag. The old MG era bridge seen in the video is unable to sustain heavy freight loads and coal rakes to Kudgi super thermal plant and steel plants coming up in this very backward part of North Karnataka. There are permanent speed restrictions of 30 kmph on the old bridge. One of the new bridges is already constructed and was awaiting CRS inspection and commissioning when the pandemic started. Maintaining social distancing, work is going on the second bridge to carry the double line. Commissioning of both bridges will eliminate speed restrictions and allow heavily loaded freight rakes to travel on this line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk5QleH8hq8

A slightly older video Jan 2020:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5DB2y7hu6A

Work on the 1.4km Narmada bridge, the longest bridge on the WDFC and earthwork and track linking is also progressing at many places on the DFC through the lockdown.
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