Indian Railways proactively dealing with expected winter fog

[jis]

Indian Railways dealing proactively with expected fog situation through the winter by canceling some runs of the trains that are typically severely affected, to allow quick recovery in a predictable way instead of random cancellations on the spur of the moment.

http://www.financialexpress.com/article/india-news/frequency-of-450-indian-railways-trains-to-be-reduced-in-january-february-due-to-fog-check-irctc-co-in/174009/

The frequency of more than 450 Indian Railways trains including Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto will be reduced during the January-February period next year due to foggy weather which is expected to hit north India.

Keeping the fog situation in mind, Railways have chalked out a plan to deal with the situation by reducing frequency of 458 trains by one day to three days a week from January 8 to February 28, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

......

Frequency of only those trains that run daily or up to 4 days a week have been reduced by 1 to 3 trips a week so that services remain available on fog affected sector on any given day.

Frequency reduction is being done to adjust with the late running of trains due to fog, said the official.

Frequency of Rajdhani trains have been reduced by only 1 trip a week. Week-end trips of important trains have not been cancelled to the extent feasible.

Premier services like Kolkata Rajdhani, Patna Rajdhani, Sealdah Rajdhani, Dibrugarh Rajdhani, Bangalore Rajdhani, Jammu Tawi Rajdhani, Mumbai Rajdhani, Bhopal Shatabdi and Bhubneshwar Rajdhani will have one trip less in a week during the period.

While the frequency of Kanpur Shatabdi will be reduced by three days, Amritsar Swarn Shatabdi, Ludhiana Shatabdi and Chandigarh Shatabdi will be reduced by one day in a week.

 

[caravanman]

Interesting item, I remember winter fog affecting services on my visit in 2011. Indian railways run a huge number of trains... It will be painful for those already booked on the cancelled trains, given the popularity of the train services. One can see the advantages of a controlled situation with fewer trains running, but with a higher degree of certainty, fog or no fog...

I wonder how the trains are managing in Chennai at the moment, due to the flooding?

Ed

 

[jis]

Chennai has basically been shut down with almost nothing moving for a few days. Things may have improved since then.

 

[Bob Dylan]

As Eddie said, very interesting, thanks for sharing jis.

Wonder if the cancellations result in "bumping" with associated bribes and even more crowding on the already very busy trains?

And will this effect you on your holiday visit to India? .

 

[NW cannonball]

As Eddie said, very interesting, thanks for sharing jis.

Wonder if the cancellations result in "bumping" with associated bribes and even more crowding on the already very busy trains?

And will this effect you on your holiday visit to India? .

I'm planning a February visit to India, and the Chennai floods worry me a bit.

Thanks to jis and caravanman - their well-informed posts- and other contributors -I'm not seriously worried at all.

Stuff happens. Here in Minnesota, in Chennai, wherever.

I'll carry a towel and a change of socks, and not panic

 

[jis]

Just to give some background info on this taking the example of the Kolkata Rajdhani. It can be operated with two consists for the 16-17 hour run (roughly 5pm departure, 10am arrival both ways), leaving 7 hours for turnaround at the Delhi end. It normally operates with three consists specially when delays more than 4 hours or so are expected, because at that point delays can start accumulating over trips. So, as it is an Eastern Railway managed train out of Kolkata, a consist is always scheduled to overnight in Kolkata. This is how they operated during last winter and before that.

Unfortunately, since the fog delays can be way over 4 hours, sometimes as much as 12 hours, even keeping a consist in hand overnight in Kolkata was proving to be insufficient to protect service. That is why they are trying this method, which allows them to keep two consists in reserve to cover for delays by running the train one less times each week. Saves them from keeping an additional inventory of two consists per train instead of just one. And we are talikng here of 19 or 20 car full length Sleeper trains.

Bob, the bribing for tickets thing, though still happens, is much less prevalent with the controls they have put in with electronic reservation and ticketing system. I would imagine that between various quotas and RAC (Reservations Against Cancellation) and Waiting Lists, a full train full of reservations can probably be accommodated over 6 trains.

The only train I am traveling on is further south, from Pune to Howrah (Kolkata) by Duronto Express which is a bi-weekly train. So no cancellations on that one. It also misses the most fog prone parts since it travels mostly on the Chhota Nagpur Plateau and Deccan Plateau and gets down into the Gangetic Plains only near Kolkata, and that too inn the late afternoon. My other travels will be by planes arriving and departing from noon to afternoon, when there is least likelihood of fog related problems. The worst time is usually 10pm or so to 9am or so.

NW February is typically a dry month even in the south which can sometimes get hit with the reverse monsoon stuff like Malaysia does in the winter. North India will be generally rainless but humid and foggy in the Gangetic Plains, specially in the early part, clearing up slowly as the month progresses.

BTW speaking of proactive handling of weather situations, as Eddie know, Indian Railways has always published a separate Monsoon Timetable with trains running slower on the Konkan Railway, which runs through an area which subject to incredible deluges during Monsoon.

 

[caravanman]

Hi,

Not sure if you have been to India before, NW Cannonball ? An umbrella is a good idea if it rains of course, but also to keep the sun off too!

While there can still be some element of staff dishonesty, I echo Jis in that the computerised booking service has reduced many such incidents.

You don't mention if you will be taking trains, but if so you might like to have a look at my recent trip report about India:

http://www.indiamike.com/india/journal.php?do=showjournal&j=9707

Have a great trip!

Ed.

 

[jis]

Specially you should note the gymnastics that you have to go through to get yourself registered at IRCTC without owning an Indian cell phone! IRCTC is where you get train tickets from.

 

[NW cannonball]

Hi,

Not sure if you have been to India before, NW Cannonball ? An umbrella is a good idea if it rains of course, but also to keep the sun off too!

While there can still be some element of staff dishonesty, I echo Jis in that the computerised booking service has reduced many such incidents.

You don't mention if you will be taking trains, but if so you might like to have a look at my recent trip report about India:

http://www.indiamike.com/india/journal.php?do=showjournal&j=9707

Have a great trip!

Ed.

I've been following your reports and links here for a year or two. And anything JIS posts about India Rail. Thanks all.

I've been saving money and researching how to spend 2 weeks to a month in India for a few years now.

About the recent monsoon flooding and all in Tamil Nadu -- maybe compares to Hurricane Sandy in overall impact? Seems serious, but not typical.

 

[caravanman]

The Chennai floods are not that typical, but have happened before, and should be gone in a few days, although the cleanup may take a good while to deal with. This is a link to posts by folk in the area since the rains began... pretty harrowing:

http://www.indiamike.com/india/chennai-madras-f24/chennai-floods-2015-a-t241569/

The posts by Nick h are from the guy who showed me around Chennai a month or so back...

It seems as if flooding is possibly going to be more of a feature worldwide in the future, with global warming.

You seem to have things in perspective, but please message me if you have any questions, I will be happy to help if I can.

India Mike dot com itself is a good source of general India travel advice too.

Cheers,

Ed.