Central Railway’s plan for rainy day: Fewer services and waterproof engines

MUMBAI: Fewer services and water-resistant locomotives: that’s Central Railway’s plan to beat waterlogging on tracks this monsoon.
For the first time, CR has decided to implement a ‘Sunday time-table’ on high-tide days that will see heavy rains. A ‘Sunday time-table’ means instead of the full complement of 1,732 services, CR will operate 1,384. The move aims to reduce the number of trains that will be exposed to the vagaries of weather and thus run the risk of being marooned on waterlogged tracks.

Also on cards is revamping locomotives to make them ‘water-proof’, said CR divisional railway manager S K Jain. These locomotives will be 12-14 inch water-resistant and hence, move along flooded tracks.

A section of commuters are, however, worried that reducing services may lead to crowding at stations. Last year’s August 29 downpour left 35 rakes marooned on tracks along Main and Harbour lines, leaving commuters stranded for hours. It took more than 12 hours for diesel locomotives to remove these rakes from tracks and nearly five days for all services to be restored.

“We plan to adopt the Sunday timetable in the larger interest of commuters. This will ensure that some trains are in reserve so that if a situation of rakes being marooned arises, CR can jump back to normalcy at the earliest,” Jain said.

“The rakes in reserve can be used the next day. Also, the modified locomotives can be used to pull out marooned rakes,” he stated.

The plan will be implemented in phases, in association with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). “We will try the plan on a pilot basis on first three high-tide days. If it does not work, we will call it off,” he added.

But what happens if the IMD forecast is wrong and there is no heavy rain on the high tide day. “CR will immediately restore normal services and run the normal 1,732 services on the suburban corridor. Our objective is not to inconvenience commuters,” Jain clarified.

“We will work according to the advisory issued by the BMC for citizens, wherein the civic body appeals to public to not step out of the house unless there is an emergency,” he said.

A senior railway official said, “We will announce in advance about such days. It will be just like we announce the mega blocks.”