A LOCAL IDEA GETS STUCK

Decades ago,even back in the late 30s and 40s,train travel from Churchgate to Virar in old-fashioned rakes took 70 minutes.

Decades ago,even back in the late 30s and 40s,train travel from Churchgate to Virar in old-fashioned rakes took 70 minutes. Today,in recently upgraded modern rakes,it takes 80 minutes because of the huge increase in passenger load and the higher number of stoppages. Deepak Gandhi,76,would tell you this.

He feels trains can be less crowded and faster. In 1975,appalled by overcrowding,he had taken it upon himself to come up with an answer,a technique of rearranging the timetable and services as per commuter load. Today,35 years and endless trips to railway offices and court sessions later,he is still fighting for the cause.

The idea had struck him after he was fed up of arduous trips on the local trains from his Vile Parle residence to the Dahisar factory and then to his Fort office everyday. He thought of digging deeper to find a solution.

The same overcrowding and inconvenience we see today were there back in 1975. One evening on my way to Dahisar from Vile Parle in a dangerously overcrowded general compartment,I took it upon myself to find why the system had failed to improve despite crores of rupees sanctioned by the railways. Along with 11 engineers from Tata and BEST,we formed a research team. After repeated requests to railway officials,we retrieved detailed data on rakes,tracks,railway timings etc. What we discovered was that the timetable was not at all in harmony with the traffic needs. Thats when we prepared this improvised timetable, said Gandhi,sitting in his small Vile Parle office.

After an year of research and many trips on trains at different hours of the day,the group came up with the cyclic matrix timetable. They say it will reduce passenger load by 40 per cent and increase train services from 1,100 per day to 1,500. The basic plan was limiting passengers on a particular train through fewer stoppages,increasing short-distance shuttles such as Dadar-Borivali through sector-wise services as against long-distance commutes of Churchgate-Virar and the subsequent formation of a uniform pattern of train arrival frequency.

Today,a train takes passengers from 20 stations. We advocated a maximum of six stoppages. A matrix of 12 minutes will include eight trains including fast,slow and superfast trains from various stations. This will even out frequency, said Gandhi.

He has been meeting railway officials. He even filed a case in the High Court against Western Railway for non-implementation of the system. Although his plan has still not been adopted,he hopes it will be soon. Railway officials have themselves agreed it can work wonders if implemented well and save lives lost due to people falling off crowded trains. However,nothing has moved forward significantly due to apathy. But I will continue to advocate this system of mine till I can. I still take the train everyday and it is my dream to see happy commuters,having a comfortable and relaxed journey on Mumbai locals,any time of the day, said Gandhi.

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A LOCAL IDEA GETS STUCK

Decades ago,even back in the late 30s and 40s,train travel from Churchgate to Virar in old-fashioned rakes took 70 minutes.

Decades ago,even back in the late 30s and 40s,train travel from Churchgate to Virar in old-fashioned rakes took 70 minutes.