[maddy42]

Indian rail is one confusing place for someone standing outside so let me provide this link which will provide some reasons to the crowding and the High speed we travel with.

http://24coaches.com/why-were-there-...ailway-budget/


Let me quote some parts for folks to understand this.

Starts easy

“There is simply no space to run new trains”, will go my reply. Just like they buys cars and then complain about “all those cars” creating traffic jams, the general clueless public people have no idea about how trains are run and the railways work.

Explains the cause

New trains were announced as populist doles and for “prestige” without any rhyme or reason or revenue justification whatsoever. It is estimated that in the past 25 years, around 2000 new non-EMU trains were introduced on the Indian Railways network while during the same period the total track kilometers grew only by around 7000 km (route track: 3000 km). Our network is so congested today that per every running track km that exists, a train runs on an average 63 km a day! Simply put, there is no track left to run trains

The Simple case of complication.

Trivandrum Division’s Bermuda Triangle To put this in perspective, let us take a scenario that played out on Friday February 27 2015. This scenario explains why there are no new trains being announced and also explains why trains in India run late.
That evening, the 12258 YPR Garib Rath departed at 1700, 16317 Himsagar at 1709, 12696 Chennai Superfast at 1720, 16432 Intercity at 1730, 16304 Vanchinad at 1740, (Kollam Passenger at 1750), 16629 Malabar at 1830 and 12431 Rajdhani at 1915. The Himsagar was late by an hour plus at Trivandrum and followed the Garib Rath till Chingavanam where it overtook it. Meanwhile, the 12696 Chennai SF trailed behind these. The three trains were all an hour+ late thanks to speed restrictions on overutilized tracks and crossings on a bit of single line. were running back to back on the Kottayam – Ernakulam section, 10 to 15 min apart.
Now here is where it gets interesting. Himsagar left Ernakulam Town ERN at 2155. Behind it, the 16342 Intercity (via Alappuzha) left Ernakulam Jn ERS at 2202 before the Garib Rath could reach ERN but was sided at Kalamasserry and the Garib Rath which left ERN at 2217 overtook it. In between this, the 16188 Tea Garden Express which leaves ERS at 2205 left 25 min late that day due to a loco problem, and by that time the SF also had reached Ernakulam. The Tea Garden was then held at the point where the KTYM line joins the ALLP line allowing the Superfast to pass and was allowed to move only after the SF left ERN at 2248. While all this was happening, the Rajdhani had arrived at Ernakulam Jn. So, at around after 2250, this was the situation, roughly: Himsagar had passed Chalakudy CKI, Garib Rath was nearing Angamaly AFK, Intercity was at Aluva AWY, Superfast was nearing Idapalli IPL, Tea Garden was at Ernakulam Town ERN and the Rajdhani was leaving Ernakulam Jn ERS. The Rajdhani then would overtake the Tea Garden stuck at ERN, the Superfast would trail the Intercity all the way till Thrissur with the Rajdhani crawling behind it, while the Himsagar and Garib Rath ran away in front. And all this circus obviously contributes a lot into trains getting late.
At 2250 there were 6 trains within 45 km, or a train every 7.5 km between ERN and CKI! The above scenario plays out in most busy sections in the country. The busiest, the Kanpur-Allahabad-Mughalsarai section is possibly 10 times as congested, which is why trains in that section run late by hours all the time. Adding more trains into this mess will only turn all our tracks into Silk Board junctions with trains stuck everywhere and running many, many hours late. Can you imagine adding more trains into this mess? Would you rather have new trains that do not run or existing trains running (somewhat) on time?

The answer on how trains use the tracks and signalling.

Trains cannot be run bumper to bumper (or, buffer to buffer, looking at it that way). Railway lines are divided into Block Sections varying between 1 km to 20 km in length. Only one train will be allowed to be present in one block section at any given time for obvious reasons. So trains have to be run with sufficient distance between them for this account. And when a train is overtaken, it has to wait until the overtaking train clears the block before starting, costing it around 15-20 minutes. If the Intercity were made to wait for the Super and Rajdhani to overtake it, it would become atleast 35-40 min late with no substantial gains for the previous two. On running trains every 15 minutes, railway tracks are steel and not Unobtainium and will fail if they are utilized too much.

Maddy

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

the status turned to PQWL

Knowing that the status of the booked tickets is never going to be confirmed decided to cancel the tickets. My question is how much time does it take for the railways to refund the ticket cost back into the CC account? Lost 400 bucks for the cancelled tickets.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by maddy42

let me provide this link which will provide some reasons to the crowding and the High speed we travel with.
http://24coaches.com/why-were-there-...ailway-budget/

That was interesting info. Thanks. Once the single-line bottleneck between Ernakulam and Chengannur on the KTYM line and similar on the Alappuzha line is fixed (whenever that happens), quite some delay can be avoided.

When the world has moved ahead with quicker modes of transportation, we are still stuck with single-tracks. One of the main issues with track expansion in Kerala is land acquisition. Since this is not an issue that can be fixed (given the ground reality and sensitivity), can we not think differently and work with what is available ? I am just thinking aloud here, but could Railways not have the normal long-distance trains run at the currently existing ground-level (with dual tracking work done soon) and have EMUs (inter-city metro kind of rains) run at a higher level (on pillars, between the existing tracks) ?

Current situation where all the office-going crowd is dependent on the long-distance trains (which invariably get delayed & get crowded) can be avoided.

Another option would be to run EMUs below the existing tracks (underground), but that would be a much more time&cost intensive effort I think.

[INJAXN]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

My question is how much time does it take for the railways to refund the ticket cost back into the CC account? Lost 400 bucks for the cancelled tickets.

Earlier it was 5-7 days, but now it seems to be within 2 days.
I Cancelled 3 tickets in past 7 days and for all 3 tickets I got the amount back into my account within 2 days. I am surprised with fast processing by irctc. In my case Debit card was used to book the tickets it may vary in case of credit cards.

[sukhoi30]

Originally Posted by maddy42

Indian rail is one confusing place for someone standing outside so let me provide this link which will provide some reasons to the crowding and the High speed we travel with.

http://24coaches.com/why-were-there-...ailway-budget/

Maddy

Thanks Maddy!! The information/article is really informative. It just shows how much the railways has degraded over the past several years. People are asking for better services, timely service but only the railways know how complicated it is to run them.
Railways should be completely disbanded from the political system. They should be allowed to make their own decisions and make sure that services run smooth.
Why do they have a different budget for railways? It should be internal like defence services or isro. Allocate one big corpus for railways to work with and let them worry about earning their own income through various means.

[faustus77]

Hi everybody.
I booked 3 separate tickets and every time it was successful and went smoothly.
It took just about a minute or a wee bit more each time to select my train, class, payment
options etc.
I have a query. I am waitlisted no 3 on Howrah N. Delhi by train number 12301 first AC.
What are the chances? (There are 2 bogies of this class which means 44 berths??)
Please guide
Thanks and regards

[binand]

Originally Posted by sukhoi30

Thanks Maddy!! The information/article is really informative.

I don't know; the article talks of track congestion. But it is quite palpable that the traffic on the Kochi-Shornur route is definitely not as much as the CST-Thane-Kalyan route or Delhi-Mathura-Agra route; which means that there is more they can do in terms of increasing capacity. I think there is one more level of signalling upgrade they can do which would increase the capacity (without having to construct new lines).

Originally Posted by sukhoi30

Why do they have a different budget for railways? It should be internal like defence services or isro. Allocate one big corpus for railways to work with and let them worry about earning their own income through various means.

The railways as far as I know doesn't take money from the union budget, so are you saying they start that practice? Railways is entirely self-funded; its revenue from ticket sales funds its operational expenses and capex.

My personal take is that more departments (India Post etc.) should be required to present their budgets in the parliament. Helps in maintaining transparency.

[TKMCE]

This is not actually about reservations but on a reserved journey I had on the Indian Railways on Saturday the 13 th of March

I booked my ticket on the AC Chair Car on the Parasuram Express between Aluva and Trivandrum one week before. Booking was directly through the counter at Aluva. Was alloted C2 49. The train was scheudled to leave at 1307.


On the date of the journey I landed up at 1245 and there was a notice on the information centre stating that the train is running late by 25 minutes and will leave at 1.30 PM. There was another notice mentioning the Coach numbers of the resevred coaches including the First Class (Parasuram is one of the few having this), the AC Chair coaches and the Second Class Reserved (D) coaches.

My coach C2 was listed as 11th from the Engine . I also noted that there was an extra third AC Chair Car Coach on that day.

I had a connecting international flight to catch the next day and hence was travelling with two heavy bags. Interestingly Indian Railways allows 40 KG baggage allowance for AC Chair Car coaches. I spent t most of the time till arrival of the train in the "Upper Class waiting room" where I met an elderly couple (senior citizens) who I understood were also travelling on the AC Chair Car on the same train.

Five minutes before departure (by now the train was running late by 50 minutes), I went back to the information centre and the same notice stating my coach was 11th from Engine was still there.

Accordingly I made my way to the position where the coach was suposed to stop and waited. The train is scheduled to stop only for two minutes. Soon after I saw the elderly couple also apporaching and they had a heavy bag which they were struggling to carry between them.

Imagine to our surprise when the train reached,that the AC coaches were nowhere near what was written in the notice board. It was the third or fourth from the rear. I thought of getting into a nearby coach and then making my way through the vesitubles but realised that the idiea was impractical as the unreserved coaches wre packed to the brim and there was no way I could move through the asle. Also there was a pantry car somewhere in the middle.

My only hope was to try to make it to the other end of the platform. I just about reached the entrance of my coach hen the train started to move and luckily since the entrance was not blocked was able to get in. Then to my surpise I saw that the elederly couple were also following behind having been in the same predicament. Luckily a poter was standing nearby and helped them put their bag inside and helped them into the coaches but it was a very close thing that they could make it.

I can understand that platforms may have to be switched at short notice but in my view,it is outright irrresponsibility and sheer negligence of the railway staff to not even bother to put correct coach positions on a train at a station where the stoppage is for 1 or 2 mnutes.

You read a lot of reports about people trying to rush into coaches at last minute and getting injured or killed. I used to think most of such incidents are due to the irresponsibily of the passengers but now I realise that atleast in some cases the railway staff contribute to such accidents.

On every international flight, the gate closes atleast 30 minutes before departure. Merely stopping selling unreserved tickets ten minutes before departure of the train will help save a few lives a month for the railways. Instead of blaming sabotage and tornadoes and negligence of an overworked train driver (or loco pilot to be academically correct), how about putting the house in order of other departments like commercial and operations of Indian Railways as well.

For the record I did complain on the number listed as the landline number of the ADRM Trivandrum Division in the Southern Railway website from the train itself shortly after the train left Aluva as no TTE bothered to turn up until after Ernakulam. I do thank the "unknown" gentleman on the other end who atleast listened to me patiently although nothing may come out of it.

[faustus77]

Hi everybody.
Please guide.
As I was not getting a reservation from Jaipur to Kota I booked it from Phulera to Kota as it was available.
As I want to entrain at Jaipur what is the procedure to change the boarding point.
I read the rules long back but unfortunately dont remember them when you book on the internet.
Thanks a lot for your help
Regards

[binand]

Originally Posted by faustus77

As I was not getting a reservation from Jaipur to Kota I booked it from Phulera to Kota as it was available. As I want to entrain at Jaipur what is the procedure to change the boarding point.

Just visit any PRS centre, fill up a reservation form but mention "Change of Boarding Point" clearly at the top and submit as per local protocol. You will have to pay clerkage I believe, and will not get a refund of difference in fare (if any).

[sdp1975]

Now travellers can book train tickets four months in advance as the Railways has decided to extend the advance reservation period from 60 days to 120 days, with effect from April 1.

Source

[andydude]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

Source

I remember Railways had changed advance reservation period to 60days from 120days only a year ago.The reason given then was that its being misused by touts and that Not many folks plan their trips four months in advance.

I am not sure why it's being changed back to 120days. Now it's going to be even more difficult to get reservation in trains.

[maddy42]

Originally Posted by TKMCE

This is not actually about reservations but on a reserved journey I had on the Indian Railways on Saturday the 13 th of March

Thats a bad experience and i feel the local Station master or atleast some person should be present on the platform when a train arrives. This would prevent such incidents.

I believe the railways introduced a new number for complaints. Can you try informing on that line.

An update on the articles by Bibek debroy. Let me infact just post a part of the quote which kind of gave a worrying tone to the future of railways finances.

55% of the revenue earning freight traffic of Indian Railways is along these stretches and I don’t have to remind you that today, Indian Railway revenue comes from freight, not passenger traffic. My back-of-the-envelope figures are that once the DFCs become operational, almost 60% of the freight that is now on the Indian Railways network simply moves to the DFCs.

There is hence a double whammy for Indian Railways, in the not too distant future. Lucrative freight moves away. Depending on where power plants are located, in any event, coal traffic might decline. Lucrative passenger traffic moves away. As it is, the Railways are in bad financial shape. But it is destined to get worse.

Do note, US is currently working on high speed rails on two sectors. LA to SFO and another work on paper between Dallas and Houston.

Maddy

[Gannu_1]

Platform tickets would cost Rs 10 starting April 1.

[shobhitk]

There is one serious issue with the IRCTC online booking system. I have booked tickets for persons qualifying as senior citizen (ie. i tick the relevant box) but not even ONCE Indian Railways has issued them Lower Births, not even the Side Lowers!
This is pure and simple common sense. I dont understand how can the indian railways ignore such a relevant fact?? They cant get away by saying that all the lower births were exhausted as they were already booked.
They should hold back a certain number of lower births in the senior citizen quota in each bogie. that is the least they can do to help make the journey of senior citizens a bit less challenging.

I hope Indian Railways is listening.