[deepclutch]

Originally Posted by ranjithrnath

This post is to throw some light on the near-abandoned Sabari rail project.

The Angamali-Sabarimala railway project was aimed at putting the hill shrine into the Indian railway network. The 116-km line, sanctioned in 1997-’98, is one of the 10 stalled rail infrastructure projects of the Southern Railway. The Railway Board desires the Government of Kerala to share 50% of the project cost. But the State government is not willing to share the cost.


The first phase is from Angamali to Azhutha near Sabarimala, the second phase from Erumeli to Punalur with a branch line connecting Pala to Kottayam and the third phase from Punalur to the proposed Nemom Terminus outside of Thiruvananthapuram city thus making it a parallel line passing through the eastern side of Kerala.

This project seems to be shelved due to lack of support from both union and state governments as well as railway officials who may be against potentially loss making hill railway.

Instead of this line, a railway line parallel to MC road from Angamaly passing through Kalady, Perumbavoor, Muvattupuzha to reach Manjoor or Kaduthuruthy (near Ettumanoor) in ERS-KTM line will fulfil the railway needs of the regions which are far from railways. A line extending from Muvattupuzha to Thodupuzha also will bring railways to Idukki. Angamaly-Muvattupuzha-Kottayam line is a parallel north-south railway that will work as a railway bypass for Kochi as well as passing through MC road towns which are not covered by railways. This line will be revenue making from the day first as it's a railway line connecting MC road towns passing through populated midlands region.

For those who don't know - Railway has parallel lines south of Ernakulam - One passing through Kottayam (MC road) to reach Kayamkulam and Trivandrum; While the other line is via Alappuzha. Railway should have focused on building mere 60-65kms of new line instead of focusing on Sabari project which seems not profitable considering it is passing through sparsely populated, hilly terrain south of Thodupuzha in the present Sabari line. The eastern part of Kochi city has the widest stretch of midland towns extending up to Thodupuzha, Vannappuram etc. These areas currently rely on Aluva railway station, which is still far away from these parts. What is lacking for the growth of Muvattupuzha, Perumbavoor, Kothaamangalam, Thodupuzha towns and related areas of Ernakulam and Idukki districts.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by ranjithrnath

This post is to throw some light on the near-abandoned Sabari rail project.

Man oh man. Looks like a few thousand crores of tax payers money has already been spent. To be honest, I don't see the point of this line, or a means to recover money from it. The shrine has a time of year when it busy. Other than that, you have visitors. To build a line for this purpose alone makes no sense at all. The other problem is this is not going to be a fast connection so you might as well go to Kottayam by road and do the usual last mile via bus or cab which takes ~2.5 hours.

Indian Railways have far too many lines that are not making any money. A few trains operate a day. Occupancy is also low on such lines. Unless there is revenue or money to be made, I don't see the point in taking up more projects like this. The Kerala Government isn't going to fund this. I don't think they have the money.

I had seen this line just outside Angamaly station and always wondered what it was. I thought it was the much talked about Airport connection but never quite understood the approach as that should have ideally been from Ernakulam end.

[Amrik Singh]

Another True Picture of Indian Railways - without a Picture.
Has it ever happened before ??

Train losing it's way

https://m.timesofindia.com/videos/ne...w/75916932.cms

Though the Pilot should have stopped the train on any major Station and enquired of the proposed route w.r.t. intended destination. But being a small fish, it is likely that only he would be blamed saving hide of others who did not keep track of the train movement.

[DrPriyankT]

Originally Posted by Amrik Singh

Another True Picture of Indian Railways - without a Picture.
Has it ever happened before ??

Train losing it's way

https://m.timesofindia.com/videos/ne...w/75916932.cms

Though the Pilot should have stopped the train on any major Station and enquired of the proposed route w.r.t. intended destination. But being a small fish, it is likely that only he would be blamed saving hide of others who did not keep track of the train movement.

Sir the issue is, there is too much of unidirectional traffic due to the shramik specials moving towards the migrant labour hubs of Eastern UP, Bihar and Bengal. Basically too many trains are on the same track at the same time. It's inequitable distribution and on top of trains carrying migrants we have a lot of freight trains in this belt too. Hence to avoid the congested route, they diverted it via a longer route. But yes the passengers should have been informed accordingly.

https://indianexpress.com/article/in...kdonw-6424515/

[Amrik Singh]

Originally Posted by DrPriyankT

Sir the issue is, there is too much of unidirectional traffic due to the shramik specials moving towards the migrant labour hubs of Eastern UP, Bihar and Bengal.

With all respect, my opinion differs. The number of Trains operating now are far far less than scheduled. Being Unidirectional and fewer intermediate stations, the operations would have been much smoother.

[DrPriyankT]

Sir, firstly as per data on raildrishti, the YTD all India freight loading is down by around 25%, and even with this substantial drop, IR is moving around 75% of its usual traffic plus shramik specials and AC specials and departmental rakes with minimal staff. If we are to see zone wise, the freight heavy ECR, SECR,ECoR, and SER are having a drop of 35.35%, 19.94%, 25.61%, 35.67%, and if you delve deeper, the drop is due to minimal running of container trains and trains carrying fertilizers. This data can be accessed on https://www.raildrishti.in/raildrish...ISLdngUldg.jsp.


Then coming to the unidirectional nature, let me give you a simple example, what if all buses in the state of Maharashtra are told to carry passengers towards the Konkan region and Goa, taking the NH-68, won't there be snarls there with the newly introduced bus traffic with along with pre-existing truck traffic . The snarls are occurring as the road is carrying more traffic than its actually used to. Similar is the case with IR currently.

All the migrant hubs of UP, Bihar, Bengal and the Northeast have two to three major feeder routes. For example trains from Maharashtra's western part which includes hubs like Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad and Nashik, trains from Gujarat and Nothern Karnataka, all use the Bhusawal Itarsi route as an access point to UP and Bihar either via the Itarsi-Prayagraj line or via Kanpur-Jhansi line. Also trains headed to the northeast via Mumbai also take this route. Currently this route is also being used to ferry coal from Singrauli to western India, hence freight movement is also there. All the station's have big yards, but they too have a finite capacity, and matters are made worse due to limited staff. Also, one must remember, that trains from South India, are also entering the Itarsi-Prayagraj Line, after traversing the Nagpur-Ballarshah-Kazipet route, which too is also traffic heavy with coal mines of Singaneri and Western Maharashtra dotted along it. This compounds matters at Itarsi which leds to network congestion, as Itarsi whose yard has a finite capacity. A similar situation is seen at Bina and Jhansi, where line like Bhopal-Katni and Jhansi-Kanpur converge(The Jhansi-Kanpur line currently is just partly doubled).

Coming to North India, the route from Delhi to UP-Bihar and the Northeast is via Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Tundla, Kanpur, Prayagraj and Mughalsarai. Its famously called the Bermuda Triangle of the NCR, as it was operating at 150% of its designed capacity in the precovid days. The lines from southern and western parts of India converge with this route at Prayagraj leading to congestion. The EDFC will relieve much of this congestion as and when its segments get commissioned.

Sir, fewer intermediate stations, still means the trains have to halt at stations for rewatering, catering and most importantly for driver change, which occupies yard and platform space, which is a finite resource. Also trains arriving and departing occupy longer time at platforms as the covid protocols have to be followed at the termini for all incoming passengers.

To add insult to injury, the Cyclone Apmhan damaged routes on the ECOR and SER network which would have otherwise carried trains to the east and beyond.

Please have a look at our route map to know how the network is arranged, so that you understand how too many trains on one route can cause bunching of trains.
https://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-map.html#routemap

And have a look at the sheer numbers of trains operated.
https://www.railpost.in/nfr-has-rece...for-ne-states/
https://www.railpost.in/indian-railw...pecial-trains/
https://www.railpost.in/odisha-recei...ns-in-21-days/

Yes, they messed up in informing passengers and in a few cases leaving them without food in this heat, but they IMHO are doing their best with limited manpower in these trying times.

https://www.railpost.in/several-shra...on-cr-and-wcr/.

And despite the covid restrictions, IR is doing its best for network maintenance.

https://www.railpost.in/trains-via-j...emodeled-yard/
https://www.railpost.in/iconic-godav...k-maintenance/

[DrPriyankT]

I hope this article puts an end to all speculation about the so called mismanagement by Indian Railways. The sad part is sidey politicians and journalists with no credibility made this whole exercise of rerouting into a political stunt, without bothering to spend one minute to understand why trains get rerouted.

https://www.railpost.in/fact-check-n...-lose-its-way/

[JohnyBoy]

Originally Posted by DrPriyankT

I hope this article puts an end to all speculation about the so called mismanagement by Indian Railways. The sad part is sidey politicians and journalists with no credibility made this whole exercise of rerouting into a political stunt, without bothering to spend one minute to understand why trains get rerouted.

https://www.railpost.in/fact-check-n...-lose-its-way/

Everything is fine except that they forgot one key thing - communication. If the passengers were informed about this development, it would have been ok. The train might not have had announcement facilities, or enough staff to go around all compartments. But they could have stopped at some station and make the announcement. Any it would have stopped at few stations for loading food or crew change.

Not only in trains, the most problem we face during this time is lack of clear and constant communication.

[Dieseltuned]

Originally Posted by DrPriyankT

I hope this article puts an end to all speculation about the so called mismanagement by Indian Railways. The sad part is sidey politicians and journalists with no credibility made this whole exercise of rerouting into a political stunt, without bothering to spend one minute to understand why trains get rerouted.

https://www.railpost.in/fact-check-n...-lose-its-way/

Very rightly pointed out. Indeed sad day for a country when it's political leaders place their squabbling and one upmanship over the nation's needs in times of severe humanitarian crisis as well. These trains were no way 'lost' merely rerouted. What the railways can learn from this is a lesson on media management especially social media in today's time.

Regards
Ritesh

[DrPriyankT]

Government agencies clearly need to learn how to communicate crisply and clearly. Case in point, the Railways did an exemplary job during the lockdown, but a simple case of miscommunication and all these social media opportunists came in, throwing cold water on the rest of the efforts taken during lockdown.

[Dieseltuned]

Originally Posted by DrPriyankT

Government agencies clearly need to learn how to communicate crisply and clearly. Case in point, the Railways did an exemplary job during the lockdown, but a simple case of miscommunication and all these social media opportunists came in, throwing cold water on the rest of the efforts taken during lockdown.

So true, approximately by the end of this month railways will have moved 3.5 million people in less than a month that these special trains have started, that is no mean feat, infact it could be a good anthropological case study on human migration and mind you the same people will want to come back to their jobs once the scenario changes so again reverse migration.

I am listing down some real achievements that the railways have done in this covid scenario. Source tweets from ministry of railways ::

1. Moved 13.5 lac wagons for essential commodities like foodgrains, salt, sugar, milk edible oil, etc

2. 9.7 Million tons of foodgrains alone carried from 1st April to 22nd May

3. Produced 1.2 lakh coveralls for PPEs

4. Produced 1.4 lakh litre of sanitizers

5. Produced 20 lakh reusable masks

6. Provided 4.7 million free meals to needy people

7. 24 babies have been born on these special trains

This is a selfless yeoman service to the nation which we should all respect.

Regards
Ritesh

Adding links to tweets from ministry of railways

https://twitter.com/RailMinIndia/sta...333400065?s=19

https://twitter.com/RailMinIndia/sta...482585090?s=19

https://twitter.com/RailMinIndia/sta...333400065?s=19

https://twitter.com/RailMinIndia/sta...896966659?s=19

https://twitter.com/RailMinIndia/sta...736886784?s=19

[DrPriyankT]

I finally hope these videos dispel all rumours and fake news being portrayed and makes us appreciate the railways during the lockdown. IMHO the messaging from the railways shoulf have been better to prevent all the hullabaloo in the media.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v3cMxxnmaGc&t=4s

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CtLgEYaYfGE

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WCzDuKVA30g

.

And please go through this article, which is written by a person who has actual knowledge about the operations of the Indian Railways.

https://www.railpost.in/outrage-all-...-the-lockdown/

[V.Narayan]

Beautifully restored Steam Engine 'Azad' displaying its prowess. Video is full of running scenes. If you are a steam buff you'll love this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGlpRhr-o-U

Confession: I am an aircraft guy. I really don't understand train engines. But a steam engine needs no language. My thanks to all the train buffs who explain and share their knowledge on this forum so that folks like me can peep over the wall and savour it.

Once and only once have I clambered inside a locomotive. This was a steam engine, in the late 1970s, just waiting at platform nos 1 at Lucknow's station and bellowing steam. That was a more innocent time without all the security issues of today. I started a conversation with the driver and clambered in and he was kind enough to explain the controls. I was 18 or so and another 12 year old was with me.

[vharihar]

Fantastic! BTW, at 4 mins you can see the entry into WPE (Western Peripheral Expwy)

[DrPriyankT]

This is a very big achievement for Indian Railways. We are now amongst the handful of countries who have double stacked container trains hauled by electric locomotives. This will save a lot of fossil fuel in the long term. Kudos to Indian Railways.