IRFCA Mailing List Archive


Messages 1021 - 1040

From: Ajai Banarji <banarji@unixg.email

Subject:

Date: 04 Feb 1993 11:50:00 -0500


Miscellaneous news

Regarding Vijay's query, the new lines from Adilabad to Wani via
Pimpalkuti have been in progress for several years now, and may not
have been mentioned in the current budget.
The Talcher-Sambalpur link will also reduce travel time from Delhi to
Orissa, as the Utkal Express could run on this route. Though there may
be a problem due to heavy ore traffic, single line, long distances
between stations as it is an undeveloped area.
However, it is clear that Orissa deserves a better rail network. Here
is an example I was told by my relatives in Orissa:
The two biggest cities in Orissa are Cuttack and Rourkela. If you want
to travel between these cities you have to either go via Bengal (i.e.
Utkal Express via Kharagpur) or via AP (Hirakhand Express via Vizianagaram).
The Talcher-Sambalpur link will at least create an "all-Orissa" link.
Dheeraj would be happy to note that the BG conversion of the Delhi-
Rewari section has started in earnest. One of the two MG lines has been
closed down. This has resulted in slower timings as well as cancellation
of some less important expresses.
Similarly the Lucknow-Kanpur MG line has been closed for conversion.
Those who follow cricket might have seen the article about the great
problems faced by the MCC team while travelling from Cuttack to Calcutta
(presumably in an AC sleeper of the Puri-Howrah Express). Well, in
England there are hardly any overnight train journeys so it might have
been a novelty for them. But most of us have US or Canadian friends who have
never travelled on a train of any kind.

From: Dheeraj Sanghi <dheeraj@cs.email

Subject:

Date: 04 Feb 1993 16:11:00 -0500


> Dheeraj would be happy to note that the BG conversion of the
> Delhi-Rewari section has started in earnest. One of the two MG
> lines has been closed down. This has resulted in slower timings
> as well as cancellation of some less important expresses.

I am of course very happy to note that. Any idea on when is this
supposed to be finished. Will the whole track be double BG anytime
soon ? I guess they will convert one MG line to BG and then close
the other MG line to convert that to BG. Wouldn't it be better to
have at triple line on this route. Looking at the traffic on
Delhi-Rewari highway and existing MG trains, there is a huge
demand for faster transportation. They should plan for EMU trains
between Delhi and Gurgaon in the beginning, and until Rewari sometime
in the future. I would have expected them to lay BG lines parallel
to MG lines and after new lines are laid, then convert the old
lines also to BG.

Are they doing electrification also along with gauge conversion ?

I have not received my Indian Railways for a long time, so I am
completely cut-off from the Railway news.

-dheeraj

From: VIJAYB <VIJAYB@PK705VMG.EMAIL

Subject: July '92 issue of Indian Railways

Date: 04 Feb 1993 18:29:00 -0500


Here's some info. from the July '92 issue:

Rly. electrification
--------------------
-As on March 31, 1992, the electrified network on IR covered 10, 809 route kms.
representing 17.3 % of the total rail network and 30.51 % of the BG network.
IR, however, have a long way to go before catching up with the other advanced rail
systems in the field of rly. electrification

Country Total rly. network Electrified network % electrified
USSR(erstwhile) 1,50,359 53,900 35
Germany 40,710 15,654 38
Poland 26,267 11,422 43
France 26,267 12,611 36
Japan 12,668 8,939 70
India 61,975 8,820 14
U.K. 16,938 4,911 20
Sweden 11,797 7,440 63
Switzerland 3,284 3,057 93
Spain 12,536 6,309 50
Italy 16,146 9,443 58

-It is proposed to electrify 3500 route kms. during the VIII plan.

-Advantages of 2x25 KV transmission (adopted for Bina-Katni-Bilaspur) is the
reduction in the number of sub-stations b'coz of high voltage transmission.
At the same time, standard 25 KV AC locos. can be used.


High Capacity Power Cars on Rajdhani Exp.
----------------------------------------
-RDSO/ICF have developed a high capacity power car which will make it possible to
work the Rajdhani-type trains with only 2 power cars instead of the present 3.
It will, thus, be possible to increase one passenger coach in the formation
and also enable addition of extra AC coaches later [Also, this will eliminate the
vestibule-break due to the 3rd generator car]

-It is also proposed to tap the power from the overhead traction lines for this
purpose. One of the diesel generating sets will be replaced by a static
converter/inverter set, which will derive power from one of the windings of the
transformer in the elec. loco. [What would the converter/inverter set do? Need
the transformer characteristics in the elec. loco be modified?]


Elec. locos.
-----------
-CLW has manufactured 1679 elec. locos. so far. BHEL has supplied 34 25KV AC
elec. locos. so far.

-The latest class of locos. being manufactured at CLW are WAP class suitable upto
140 kmph. for mail and express trains and WAG class capable of hauling 4500 tonne
trains on moderately graded sections [must be WAP1 and WAG5. Does this mean
that production of WAM4s will stop?]

-The locos. currently under production at CLW are in the range of 3800 - 3900 hp.
Recently, CWL has produced the first prototype loco. of 5000 hp. for freight
operations [WAG7]. The loco. is provided with specially designed high capacity
transformers and high adhesion fabricated bogies. This loco. will avoid double
heading on graded sections to a large extent. [would definitely be useful in
the Kottavalasa - Kirandul section]

-A new version of the passenger loco. WAP3 is now on production lines which will
be suitable for a speed upto 160 kmph.


More later on the July issue



Regards,

From: apte <apte@glacier.email

Subject: Single Line Optimization

Date: 04 Feb 1993 15:21:00 -0500


Hi Folks,

Some of the recent discussion threads have shown how Single Line
sections can slow down the fastest of trains to a crawl. The
Bombay-Madras line is the most glaring example, but there are loads of
other small key connecting sections which are single line, and which
slow down lots of trains.

My question is this: have the Indian Railways worked on any
optimization algorithms using the computing power that we have
available today, to try and make for the efficient scheduling ?
Specifically is there a simulator on IR (or anywhere else in the world
for that matter), where you can provide input parameters such as
distance of single stretch, # of trains, stoppages, speed etc.; and it
can spit out the most optimal timings ? If anyone has info on this
point, please post!

If such a simulator doesn't exist, I think it would be a fun problem
for any computer scientist to try. And I strongly suspect that the
current single line timings on IR could be improved somewhat by using
such a simulator.

Pushkar
-------

From: VIJAYB <VIJAYB@PK705VMG.EMAIL

Subject: July '92 issue (contd.)

Date: 05 Feb 1993 18:11:00 -0500


Talcher - Angul rail link
-------------------------
-First train from Angul to Talcher flagged off on Rathayatra day.

-Alignment of the Talcher - Sambhalpur rail link skirts around the Talcher coal
belt and passes thru' important places like Angul, Boinda, Rairakhol, Jujumura
before it joins the existing railway network at Sambhalpur.

-New link will open up hinterland to Paradip and also provide an alternate route
to the saturated Jharsaguda-Kharagpur-Cuttack section. For the economic
development of the region, the new line would be invaluable as coal from Talcher
as well as raw materials and finished products from NALCO, fertilizers from FCI
and cement from Hira Cement Works would move over this line. [What do NALCO
and FCI stand for?]

-The line will reduce running time between Sambhalpur and Cuttack by about 8 to
10 hrs. [That's a lot!]

-Rlwys. have planned a diesel loco shed and wagon depot at Angul keeping in view
the long term traffic requirements in consonance with the growth of traffic
expected from this area.


Thrilling Experience on Shatabdi Exp.
------------------------------------
[The author travels from N.Delhi to Kalka]
-Photo indicates that it is hauled by an ordinary WDM2 and the coaches are painted
in cream and blue (cream above and at the windows, blue below) with a cream
stripe below the windows. Loco. has the normal red color.

-The train has 8 AC chair cars and 2 luggage-cum-generator cars. Has the capacity
to carry 550 passengers. It covers the distance of 265 kms. between the cities
of Delhi and Kalka in 4 hrs. 15 mts. The daily total earnings from the train
from both UP and DN dirns. are Rs. 2,08,380. Occupational percentage is
over 85.

-Author mentions that the train looked like flying on the track at the speed of
105 kmph. Since the train maintained its schedule (from the timings mentioned)
, one can conclude that 105 kmph. is the booked speed. The max. speed is
most probably 110 kmph. since an ordinary WDM2 hauls the 10 coach train.
A margin of 5 kmph. should suffice for the 4.25 hrs. run.



Regards,
Vijay

From: Ajai Banarji <banarji@unixg.email

Subject:

Date: 05 Feb 1993 18:08:00 -0500


Optimization of railway operations

Back in the 1970s there was something of this sort being done for the
railways at IIT Kanpur. I think the main objective was to calculate
the optimum speed profile (i.e. a graph of speed vs time) which would
minimize the time between stations. This took into account the constraints
such as gradients and other factors affecting speeds.
IIM Bangalore has a full-fledged transportation division, although I
don't know about their specific activities. The OR people at IIM Ahmedabad
have also done some work on optimization of rolling stock requirements; some
papers relating to this have been published in major OR journals like
"Interfaces".

From: apte <apte@glacier.email

Subject: A few bouquets

Date: 11 Feb 1993 13:58:00 -0500


Hi Folks,

I am sure this point has not escaped the attention of IRFCA netters,
but I haven't seen it mentioned explicitly on the net. And that is the
quantum leap that IR has taken in connecting up the country over the
last few years.

Till maybe 5 years ago (an that's still 40 years after
independence, and about 100 years after inception); IR route
imagination seemed restricted to a few trains main lines such as
Bombay-Delhi, Howrah-Madras etc... ***There were very few trains that
crossed over from one mainline to another.***

Now there is a veritable
flood of trains that criss-cross domains like nobody's business!
Some selected examples:
- Hapa/Rajkot/Ahmadabad to Trivandrum/Bangalore/Cochin
- Guwahati to Trivandrum/Bangalore/Cochin and Bombay
- Vishakhapatnam/Sambalpur/Indore/Hapa-New Delhi
- Lucknow/Patna/Varanasi to Madras/Cochin
- Ahmadabad-Agra-Lucknow-Gorakhpur
..and we could go on and on. The result is that currently it is very
difficult to find two major cities in India that are not connected by a
direct trains at least weekly! And given the pathetic state of air
transport in India, I would say that IR is doing a damn good job!

The one glaring "missing link" is an East-West train (which we
discussed briefly on this network - the so-called "Purab-Paschim Exp.)
A set of trains needs to be introduced that connects:
Okha/Ahmadabad and may be even Jaipur (after the Sawai Madhopur-Jaipur
BG link is complete) on the west -
with Guwahati/Puri etc. on the east.
IMO that should pretty much tie things up for connectivity
on a gross level. Of course faster, more frequent trains would come in
the next "fine tuning" phase.

So, good show IR!
Pushkar
-------

From: Ajai Banarji <banarji@unixg.email

Subject:

Date: 17 Feb 1993 15:39:00 -0500


Miscellaneous Rail News

The Railway Budget is due one of these days. Our beloved minister
C.K. Jaffar Sharif continues in office, although it was generally
believed that he was to be sacked. The deputy minister Mallikurjana
has been shifted to another ministry, while R.C.Lenka is the new
deputy minister. I don't know where he is from, but one looks forward
to the new trains he will introduce to his constituency.
The ABB electric loco deal is still not quite dead. However, the Supreme
Court has cleared the minister and railway board of any wrongdoing in the
bogie tender case.
The PM was recently in Nandyal (his constituency) to inagurate the
conversion of the Guntur-Guntakal and Secunderabad-Dronachellam lines.
The Guntur-Guntakal conversion will make it easier to transport coal
fro the eastern coalfields to Bangalore area. It may also reduce goods
traffic on the saturated Vijayawada-Madras section as the Bangalore-bound
goods traffic would be diverted.
There are now only 55 pairs of superfast services. A list appears in the
Hindustan Times as well as Hindu in the first week of January. There are
some new names here, such as the Pinakini Express from Madras to Vijayawada
and another express from Hyderabad to Vijayawada.

From: Jishnu Mukerji <jis@usl.email

Subject: Hi folks! Bradshaw anyone?

Date: 25 Feb 1993 08:34:00 -0500


Yours truly is back from India after a thrilling around India romp using
an Indrail Pass. I travelled from Calcutta to Delhi to Chandigarh, back
to Delhi, then onto Bangalore and finally back to Calcutta. During my
travels I saw the wreck of the Rajdhani near Rura, travelled by
Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Karnataka, and Coromandal Expresses. More on all
that later.

More importantly, I have brought with me four brand new Bradshaws. So if
you want one drop me a line and we will figure out how to get it to you.
Of course we will use an FCFS algorithm based on the order of arrival of
requests to me, to determine who will get them.

More later.

Jishnu.

From: Ajai Banarji <banarji@unixg.email

Subject:

Date: 26 Feb 1993 13:57:00 -0500


News about the Railway Budget

You must have seen the basic info which appeared on misc.news.southasia.
Unfortunately, the really interesting bits about new trains and new routes
will have to wait until we get the papers from India.
However, I understand that one of the new services is a Rajdhani to
Madras.

From: aravind <aravind@vax135.email

Subject:

Date: 27 Feb 1993 18:09:00 -0500


Some recent railway news from SR, SCR ....
(gathered on a just-completed visit to the Southern metros)

- SCR gauge conversion: Parli Vaijnath-Parbhani and
Guntur-Narasaraopet sections opened to BG traffic.

- Secunderabad metro, Secbad-Mahbubnagar conversions in progress

- SR gauge conversion: Bangalore-Yelahanka (old MG route) opened;
Bangalore-Tumkur conversion by March end(?). All MG tracks at Bangalore
City ripped out. No trains between Bangalore and Arsikere.
Fate of Salem line trains unknown.

- All trains cancelled on Madurai-Virudhunagar-Tuticorin section.
Nellai express now runs via Madras-Tiruchi-Manamadurai-Virudunagar-
Tenkasi-Tirunelveli. Pearl City Express runs only till Madurai.
Fate of other trains (Kollam mail, Tirunelveli Janata) unknown.

New Dindigul-Tuticorin BG line expected soon.

- Electrification of Erode-Cochin in progress.

- Madras MRTS (elevated BG line from Madras Beach to Chepauk) making
slow progress.

- BG line from Madras Beach to Tambaram under construction (in addition
to the MG lines).

- Railway minister inaugurates Kuppam-Whitefield doubling project
(remaining single-line portion of the Madras-Bangalore route).
(But with funding uncertain, this one might never get done ...)

=====================================================

Road News: National Highway 45 from Madras to Tiruchi being widened to
be a 4-lane highway from Madras to Villupuram. New bypass at
Chengalpattu. Widening planned to extend all the way to
Kanniyakumari (eventually).

From: Jishnu Mukerji <jis@usl.email

Subject: A rumor about Rajdhanis & this & that

Date: 01 Mar 1993 08:26:00 -0500


While in India I heard a rumor from someone who works in the commercial
division of Eastern Railway. It seems that AC Chair Cars will slowly be
phased out from Rajdhani Expressesand AC Expresses. They will be
replaced by AC Sleepers. This has already been done to a large extent on
the Howrah AC Express.

The Howrah Rajdhani that I travelled on had 7 AC Chair Cars and 6 AC
Sleepers (i.e. AC 2Tier). These together with 2 pantries, 2
Generator/Luggage and 2 AC I makes it a 19 car train. It is pulled by a
single WAP1 based in Ghaziabad Electric Shed. BTW the Generator Cars
with higher rating are already in service on the Rajdhanis, so there is
no break in the middle of the train. I travelled on this train from
Howrah to New Delhi. The ride was as usual nice and smooth by IR
standards. The food I thought was somewhat better than it was four years
back. Near Rura we crawled by the wreck of the Rajdhani about a week
after the accident. Still on site were the crumpled up WAP1, several AC
Chair Cars, two AC I's, a Generator/Luggage, and two AC 2 Tiers lying
around at various angles. They had barely finished fixing up the UP
track. The DOWN track still had temporary steel sleepered jointed
segments waiting to be replaced by welded concrete sleepered track. Some
of the DOWN track's electrification wires were held in place by
temporary poles and work was in progress to get the permanent posts up
and in service. You will recall that it was the DOWN Rajdhani that
collided with a derailed wagon of an UP goods train that was carrying
cement. This and a separate incident of a fire in a train somewhere near
Mughal Sarai on the Grand Chord caused a delay of two hours in our
arrival at New Delhi.

Incidentally, the Integral Coach design came through with flying colors
in this accident. All those that were killed were either in the corridor
area or in bathrooms. All of the most severe injuries were also to
people who were in those areas. People who were in the passenger
compartment area fared relatively well even in the first passenger
coach in the train - a AC I. Just as designed the damaged coaches
collapsed near the doors leaving the passenger compartment intact. As a
result of this accident there was a brief shortage of AC Sleepers and
Chair Cars causing all sorts of bizarre equipment appearing on various
trains or under-equipped trains for a few days. By the time I did my
travelling this situation had been resolved by equipment shuffling and
bringing out all standby coaches to protect train consists. The problem
was exacerbated by the fact that Rajdhani's are compressed air braked
and most other trains are not, thus magnifying the equipment shortage
for Rajdhanis while there were many vacuum braked AC Sleepers and Chair
Cars available but unusable on the Rajdhanis.

The UP police didn't cover itself with glory. Soon after their arrival
on the scene of the accident they proceeded to help themselves to the
belongings of the passengers, without their permission of course - an
activity otherwise know as theft. In general I found a remarkable lack
of discipline and lack of work ethic in the cow belt states that I
travelled through. The rest of India, and South India in particular did
not seem to share this general breakdown of the socio-political fabric
at all. I do fear for the future of the cow belt. The state of West
Bengal with its capitalist form of communism seemed to be somewhat
better disciplined but with zero work ethic, but headed the Bihari way
fast. (Oh boy, have I set myself up for some serious flaming!:-))

The Kalka Shatabdi was a 10 car train with 7 AC Chair Cars a Pantry Car
and 2 Generator/Luggage. The train has a blue and cream color scheme. It
is pulled by a WDM2 from the Tughlakabad Diesel Shed. The engine is
painted in a color scheme that matches the train's. I took it from
Chandigarh to New Delhi. On the whole it was a wonderful ride.
Immediately upon departing Chandigarh morning tea was served. The only
stop between Chandigarh and Delhi is at Ambala. Soon after Ambala
breakfast was served - the usual Rajdhani like stuff. Scheduled time
between Chandigarh and Delhi is 3hr 10min (6:40 to 9:50). Arrival in
Delhi was 20 mins. behind schedule, all of the delay was accumulated at
New Azadpur, while waiting for congestion to clear on the Subzi Mandi
Chord.

That's all for now. More later.

Jishnu.

From: Ajai Banarji <banarji@unixg.email

Subject:

Date: 02 Mar 1993 18:50:00 -0500


Aravind's news

So it does seem that the "trunk line" from Madras Egmore is being converted
to broad gauge. It is probably going to take a long time before the entire
metre gauge network is converted. Probably the metre gauge commuter services
between Beach and Tambaran will remain as they are as there will be too
much disruption if it is converted. (That is also the reason why the
1500 V DC system in Bombay will never be converted.)
We might see trains running from Madras to Tirunelveli/Tuticorin via
Coimbatore, Ernakulam and Trivandrum if there is enough line capacity.
People in Tamil Nadu often complain that the interior is underdeveloped
because of the lack of broad gauge. You might be surprised to know that
over 100 years ago the line from Tiruchi to Thanjavur and Nagapattinam
was built on broad gauge. After a few years (in the 1880s) a policy
decision was taken to have metre gauge for all the lines south of the
Madras-Coimbatore route, so this line was converted to metre gauge.
Similarly, the Erode-Tiruchi line was initially built on BG, converted
to MG in the 1880s and back to BG in the 1920s. There are quite a few
examples of this sort; the worst case is that of the Siliguri-Haldibari
section. It was initially built on mg in the late 19th century, and
converted to BG in the 1910s (after the Hardinge Bridge was built).
After partition it was an isolated BG section which was not connected
to any BG line in India, so it was reconverted to mg in around 1950. Finally
it was re-re-converted to BG in the 1960s when the main BG line to New
Bongaigaon was built. This must be a world record :-)

From: aravind <aravind@vax135.email

Subject: Trains from Madras to Tuticorin/Tirunelveli

Date: 03 Mar 1993 08:39:00 -0500


There was some stuff in the newspaper about running BG trains
from Madras Central via Erode-Karur-Dindigul to Tuticorin/Tirunelveli,
once the conversion is complete. The route via Trivandrum is not
likely to be used for this purpose as it is way too long.

From: Dheeraj Sanghi <dheeraj@cs.email

Subject: irfca get-together using IRC.

Date: 07 Mar 1993 20:39:00 -0500


------- Forwarded Message

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 93 16:53:07 MST
From: chitta@cs.email (C Baral)
To: dheeraj@cs.email
Subject: irfca


I remember there was some discussion for an irfca get together.

I was wondering that it might be fun to have a irfca
electronic get together using irc

What do you think.

---
Chitta


------- End of Forwarded Message

From: Ajai Banarji <banarji@unixg.email

Subject:

Date: 08 Mar 1993 16:24:00 -0500


More budget details needed

Does anyone have the desi papers like Times of India which give the
interesting details of the railway budget? Please post the details.
I would do it myself, except that the papers take at least 15 days to get
here.

From: Ajai Banarji <banarji@unixg.email

Subject:

Date: 25 Mar 1993 16:17:00 -0500


Details of Railway Budget

This seems to have been one of the longest inactive spells on our net.
Anyway here is some news from the Times of India of Feb 25. It does not
give the full text of the minister's speech so some details may be missing.
NEW TRAINS:
(Note: all these trains are daily unless mentioned otherwise)
Weekly Rajdhani Express from Nizamuddin to Madras
Superfast express: Nizamuddin-Mangalore
" " Nizamuddin-Nagpur/Jabalpur (presumably splits at Itarsi)
Tri-weekly express: Delhi-Jammu Tawi
Link express from New Jalpaiguri/Katihar to Delhi (presumably to connect
with the existing Katihar-Delhi express)
Express from Dhanbad/Adra to Tatanagar
Express: Agra Fort-Jaipur
Bi-weekly superfast express:Delhi-Bhubaneshwar/Puri
Express: Nizamuddin-Agra

EXTENSION:
Patna-Dhanbad Pataliputra Express extended to Hatia via Bokaro Steel City
Allahabad-Meerut Nauchandi Express extended to Saharanpur

INCREASE IN FREQUENCY:
Howrah Rajdhani, Bombay Rajdhani and the "duplicate" August Kranti Rajdhani
to all run daily.
Dadar-Guwahati express to run bi-weekly instead of weekly
Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Visakha Express to run daily instead of bi-weekly

ANNUAL PLAN OUTLAY:
Rs 6500 crores, of which 810 crores go to gauge conversion, 2750 crores on
rolling stock and 1010 crores on track renewal.

NEW CONVERSION PROJECTS:
The following are to be taken up in 1993-94:
Rewari-Bathinda
Lumding-Dibrugarh and branches
Jodhpur-Jaisalmer
Neemuch-Ratlam (note that Chitorgarh-Neemuch already has parallel BG and MG)
Phulera-Ahmedabad
Luni-Marwar

More details of new lines and conversions to follow.

From: Dheeraj Sanghi <dheeraj@cs.email

Subject: Irfca needs a new home.

Date: 12 Apr 1993 14:38:00 -0500


Hello everyone,

I am no longer able to administer the irfca mailing list.
I would hate to see it die. Please come forward if you can give
IRFCA a new home.

Thanks,

-dheeraj

From: Surekha <surekha@nyx.email

Subject: India - 15 killed in a train accident near Ranchi

Date: 21 Apr 1993 02:45:00 -0500


* 15 killed as train derails in Bihar

Calcutta, April 20 (PTI): At least 15 people were killed and 20
injured when the Ranchi-Rohardagga passenger train derailed 40 kms from
^^^^^^^^^^
Lohardagga
Ranchi this morning, railway sources here said.
The engine and four coaches of of the ill-fated narrow gauge train
derailed and overturned at a place between Tangerbansili and Jagjua
stations at 1135 hours, according to sources in the south easter railway
headquarters.
The injured were rushed to holy cross and rajendra
medical college and hospitals.
The sources said that the union minister of state for
railways, Mr K.C Lenka and the member staff, railway board,
M K Rao left Delhi for the accident site by a special IAF
aircraft.
The general manager of the south eastern railway,
A.Ramji, who was on an official tour in Orissa, has air-dashed
to the accident spot. The divisional railway manager,
accompanied by a medical team from adra, the additional
general manager and senior officers from the headquarters here
also rushed to the site.
The authorities also ordered ex-gratia payments to the
next of kin of the deceased, the sources said adding that the
relief and rescue operations were in full swing. The cause of
the accident was under investigation.

( E N D )

Note: The contributor of this news preferred to remain anonymous.

From: anand <anand@watson.email

Subject: Trip report

Date: 22 Apr 1993 14:01:00 -0500


Hi Everyone,

Just got back from a three week trip to India.

1. The only train travel that I undertook was from Madras to Bangalore
and back.

Madras -> Bangalore by Brindavan, A/C chair car: Uneventful journey.

Bangalore -> Madras by Lalbagh, 2nd class: The train was stopped near
Bangarapet by students. They sat down on the tracks and the police had
to be called to chase them away. Got delayed by 3 hours.

Main impression was that maintainence has gone down. The A/C chair car
was barely 5 years old but many of the fittings were broken and was
dirty in general.

The Madras - Jolarpettai line is saturated. The slightest accident
causes big delays. Saw an incredible number of goods trains, many of
them pulled by two WAM4 s. Also saw many container trains.

Jolarpettai-Bangalore has been electrified but some trains on this
section are still diesel hauled (probably due to electric loco
shortage).

Saw a WDM2 being used for shunting (!!!) in the Bangalore city
passenger yards. They also have the usual diesel-hydraulic WDS4bs.

2. The railways have apparently stopped publishing time tables. I was
only able to get the Bradshaw and it was full of mistakes. For example,
Bangalore-Mysore is still shown as Meter Gauge.

Incidentally, all trains on the MG Bangalore-Miraj line have been
halted due to the gauge conversion work in progress. I could see that
the BG conversion had almost reached Arasikere. Again there was no
indication in the Bradshaw that no trains were running on this
section.

I will give some other miscellaneous obervations in the next msg.

Anand
anand@watson.email