Straphangers United

This picture of a rail user who climbed up the staircase of the Kodambakkam station in Chennai on the Beach – Tambaram line on his hands shows our pathetic, backward, Victorian-era railway infrastructure.

The handicapped man had to climb the steep, dirty staircase on his hands. When our Railway Minister can announce a ”cash surplus” of Rs.25,000 crores for one year in the Budget, he can very well afford to modernise the system by putting in escalators and lifts at all stations.

Mr. Minister, please put your money where your mouth is.

The Railway Ministry has offered some hope to commuters by promising a time-bound extension of the MRTS railway upto St. Thomas Mount in Southern Chennai. The expenditure involved, of course appears to be staggering, at half of the entire amount of Rs.990 odd crores spent so far on the existing MRTS, Phases I and II. Some of the funds needed can be realised through joint development of property along the alignment to Mount, as is the international practice. If private real estate is going to benefit out of the rail line, it can be coaxed into contributing some of its profits into the new project that is helping the property sector.

The challenge before the Ministry and the Tamil Nadu Government, which is the major partner in the venture, to deliver the extension by the promised deadline of 2010.

If it does achieve that target, there will be a circular railway of sorts, covering St.Thomas Mount on the Tambaram – Beach line upto Beach, and the MRTS from Beach to St. Thomas Mount. What the Chennai metropolitan planning authorities need to do is to put in high capacity bus systems now on the transverse line from Light House MRTS station point at Kamarajar Salai to Poonamallee High Road covering the Nungambakkam railway station.

To say that a major service augmentation is needed in terms of train frequency would be an understatement. Once the line extension to Mount has been completed, the service on both Beach – Tambaram and MRTS would have to be doubled, and in time increased even more. A train every 4 minutes would be required to meet the higher travel demand and all rail cars should be modern. At present, even the 12 car rakes on the Beach – Tambaram line go full most of the time, and the six car rakes on MRTS are also crowded.

As a beginning, the Southern Railway needs to increase the number of cars in the MRTS rakes to 12 for all business hours and nine at other times immediately.

The reports in The Hindu about MRTS and other Tamil Nadu related train services are here and here.

The 2008 timetable for MRTS is here.

To Mahatma Gandhi, learning about India meant travelling on its trains, third class. The railway that began in the Raj is unique, it can evoke wander lust, vivid memories of a unique landscape, images of extraordinary crowds and even of visions of royal luxury on the palaces on wheels.

Whatever else they are, India’s trains are full of life. I watch these slices of life almost everyday, as I commute on the suburban lines of Chennai. Will a growing India change the way its trains run? Will there be people in remarkably modern coaches, with stiff upper lip and none of the colour that we see today? Only time will tell. Today, we see many scenes like this one…

Today, I am just posting some scenes from my travels over the last few days on the Tambaram – Beach 11.02 suburban and the 11.34 MRTS from Fort to Chintadripet. All pictures were taken with a Nokia 3500 classic and edited with GIMP. I occasionally use the ten year old Corel Photo Paint Select Edition, but GIMP, which is freeware, works just fine. Hope to travel towards Velachery soon and shoot some interesting pictures…

This picture of commuters herded into a section of a coach on the MRTS is among the best examples of distorted policing in India. These passengers violated the Railway Act by crossing the tracks, from one platform to another, rather than use the designated subway at Park Town Station.

To be in this situation is humiliating. There is a waiting Police posse that will detain the violators, herd them together and get them on board the next MRTS train towards Velachery, to be produced before a Railway Magistrate for fining. In the train, they are kept confined to a particular area of the coach, as if they had picked someone’s pocket. Many may lose the day’s wage as they spend a few hours attending to the legal requirement, or must at least take a day’s leave from work. I don’t get the sense of this marching, corraling and transportation to a Magistrate, when the fine could be levied then and there.

Moreover, although it is illegal, those caught for this offence have a justifiable reason to be angry. They are not the only people to cross the tracks in this manner. Almost eighty per cent of passengers alighting at Fort Station on the same line, which is just one station ahead, cross the tracks unhindered all the time.

The secret to their immunity apparently is that they are almost all Government servants, working for either the Tamil Nadu Secretariat, or in the defence forces in Fort St. George. Not a single policeman is in evidence in Fort Station, engaged in the enforcement that is going on one station away.

I am outraged the Southern Railway is realising significant amounts of money through fines, apart from tickets, but it does a ridiculously poor job of providing amenities to passengers. Riding a train is inextricably connected to pedestrianisation. People have to walk to train stations and platforms. Why cannot the Chennai Division of Southern Railway instal good facilities including escalators at all its stations for passengers? Must the Railway live in the stone age and, quite shamefully, rely on steep British-era staircases that only the able bodies can use? Why is there no prominent notice at Park Town Station in English and Tamil, warning people that they could be fined a specific sum money and would have to attend court?

The attitude towards commuters demonstrated by the Southern Railway clearly shows that it is a mindset problem. Public transport continues to be viewed not in environmental and efficiency terms, but as a last ditch option, one that caters mainly to the less affluent. This crusty attitude is seriously outdated and deserves to be condemned in the strongest terms.

Straphangers United urges commuters to petition the Southern Railway on the question of facilities for pedestrians, on the suburban and MRTS lines, at ALL stations.

The following officers could be approached with petitions under the Right to Information Act, 2005, seeking information about the levy of fines, amount of fines collected annually at Park Town Station during the last five years, the use to which these funds have been put to and why no escalators are being put up in the suburban and ground-level MRTS stations.

Shri.M.Amarendra, Deputy General Manage(G) is the Public Information Officer (PIO), Tel Nos:22541 (Rly.) and 044-25355305 (BSNL) assisted by Shri.B.Nageswara Rao, Assistant PIO, Tel.Nos:22512(Rly) and 044-25352830 (BSNL).

To say that the Indian Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, lectures international management students when the railway stations are embarrassingly antiquated is nothing more than a joke.

Chennai commuters have repeatedly pointed out through letters in newspapers and in petitions, that the station infrastructure in the suburban and first phase MRTS sections is rickety and poorly designed.

In the suburban lines, the station roofing is made of health-damaging asbestos. In addition, as the accompanying picture shows, there are gaps in the roofing wherever the pillars have been installed. This is a seriously faulty design, because it allows water to drip on to the base of the pillar and stagnate. Until it completely dries up, it acts as a receptacle that is best suited to mosquito breeding.

Of what avail are national malaria eradition campaigns, when this is the level of importance given by public health and railway authorities to public facilities? Will the Railway Ministry act to modernise its creaking infrastructure on the suburban lines in this, the 21st century?

None of the civic leaders bother about the rail lines and facilities, whether it is removing garbage or providing lighting on the approaches. One look at the scene at Chintadripet makes this clear. To local leaders, the rail lines are all owned by the Central government, unlike the bus service which is “owned” by the State. Thus, there is no political incentive to improve things. That is the breadth of their concern. What a mess our civic management is!

The increase in oil prices in India is no doubt painful for the middle class. On a monthly basis, an increase of two rupees on a litre may translate into an erosion of earnings ranging from about Rs.60 to Rs.120 for many middle class families, which operate a two-wheeler; most regular users may be spending at least a litre a day, and many twice that much.

But the oil and oil-hungry vehicles can yield benefits by simply becoming objects of a tax that will help fund alternative options. This strategy is increasingly being resorted to in some international cities by politicians who are genuinely of a Leftist orientation. Mayor Ken Livingstone in London has been funding some of the finest buses anywhere using such taxation measures. He has just increased the charge levied on bigger vehicles to 25 pounds, for entering designated areas of London; he has also announced a massive investment in improving access to cycling in London.

Commuters riding trains, trams and buses in India will not miss the irony of the Indian Left asking that petrol prices not be raised, when Leftist initiatives the world over favour taxing the rich, who use up the non-renewable, polluting fossil fuel resources, and use the tax funds to help everyone. Clearly, India’s Left parties have it all backwards and treat oil as some holy cow.

I have no quarrel about people wanting to buy and own cars. As a believer in the Green philosophy, I only submit that they must be ready to pay for the privilege. It is common sense that when there are fewer polluting engines around, the quality of air is improved and we can all lead a healthier life. India’s cities are notorious for particulate matter pollution that is affecting millions of people with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other respiratory conditions. We can and must limit the number of engines that are being let loose on our roads everyday. The alternative is to put fewer engines in the form of buses and opt for trains that haul a lot many more people than cars and scooters, at a lower cost to the purse and to the environment.

As I rode the 11.02 from Kodambakkam to Fort this morning, these were the thoughts that struck me. I was in the vendors coach, which provides more standing room, and pondered India’s vehicle madness and how the Left parties were indirectly calling for everything that would help the rich: policies that make it possible to buy low fuel-efficiency, high-emission cars and operate them at will and with wanton disregard to the environment by keeping fuel cheap. What’s Leftist about all that, I wondered?

I saw an old gent squeezing his way into the belly of the vendors’ coach, a crude walking stick in hand, eyes straining through thick eyeglass lenses. What would his reaction be to the Hummer that was proudly shown off in the Auto Show recently held in Delhi? Anyone driving a Hummer by choice must have a warped sense of life on earth and abysmally poor understanding about energy and the world’s future.

I was glad to hang on to the strap, however crude and antiquated the train service in Chennai may be. We can always put in a better train service if some dedicated taxes or a cess were levied on oil, as London and some cities on the continent have been doing. Perhaps our Dravidian leaders will speed up the Metro rail plan.

Far away, Ken Livingstone proposes to do the following things for London if he wins the Mayoral poll: Over-60s and the disabled to be allowed to use the freedom pass, allowing free travel on London public transport 24 hours a day, instead of just after 9 am. Congestion charge likely to rise to £25 a day for heavily polluting 4×4s. No increase in fares in 2008 for single journeys on buses and the Tube.

If Ken loses the Mayoral race, which is quite unlikely given the nature of his proposals, we would welcome him here.

Following an in-depth focus on MRTS and its poor service levels so far published by The Hindu, the Southern Railway has announced a set of improvements.

These include improved lighting and private security guards for stations, ticket vending machines in all stations in three months, catering facilities at three major stations including Velachery and Tirumailai, and MTC bus links in some stations.

Follow The Hindu for the full report, which we will link to later from here.

Update: The story explaining the measures is here.

The Hindu has published the monthly pass fares for the Chennai suburban trains including the Beach – Velachery MRTS.

The rate card can be downloaded as a PDF document from the newspaper website here.

The Hindu carried a story about MRTS passengers, especially women feeling unsafe because of the dark conditions in and around railway stations at dusk. The story is here.

I believe the story could have been better illustrated with some sensitive photography. To convey the actual atmosphere that passengers and commuters encounter, here are two pictures taken with a Nokia 3500 mobile phone.

Actually, this situation can be overcome by allowing temporary hawking in the dark hours, even on a limited scale. This can be done in the station portico, the parking areas and other desolate corners. These suggestions are particularly relevant on the Beach to Tirumailai (Mylapore) stretch of the MRTS leading to Velachery, which have old-style, poorly illuminated stations.