Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Travel in MRTS with Chennai Metro like ambience

C SHIVAKUMAR @ CHENNAI:
Passengers travelling on Mass Rapid Transit system (MRTS) will avail comforts more or less akin to Chennai Metro as the the railway service owned by Southern Railway is set to be segregated and handed over to Chennai Metro Rail.

The usually lifeless stations like Chennai Fort and Park Town are likely to be be segregated from the usual suburban stations and may be refurbished as there are plans to install lifts and escalators in these stations, according to sources in Chennai Metro and Southern Railway.

This would be mean the quality of train ravel on the MRTS station station from Beach station to Velachery will be upgraded with coaches similar to Chennai Metro.

It is learnt from official sources that MRTS will not have the suburban rail coaches but new metro rolling stock with new communications-based train control (CBTC) system which will have metro-standard signalling across the full line.

Similarly, the entire stations will undergo repairs and renovations and platform modifications will be required for the new rolling stock which will be rolled out once the merger takes place.

Stations along the MRTS network will have modern telecommunication system at all stations including CCTV cameras, automated fare collection gates, passenger information systems and passenger announcement system. But then there would be no guage conversion. MRTS will remain a broad guage line since gauge conversion will be too disruptive, sources added.

Interestingly, these are the suggestions of interim report submitted by consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers and Balaji Railroad Systems which had suggested the assets of MRTS to taken and those that have to be handed over to Southern Railway.

The report has suggested that assets to be taken over include civil station structures, the MRTS yard area at Beach station, all electrical substations, overhead electric lines and functional electrical assets. Those assets which have to be handed over to Southern Railway include existing platforms at Beach station used for MRTS, the current rolling stock used on the network and entire signalling and telecommunications infrastructure currently installed.

Plans are also on to have a new terminus and concourse at Beach station which is within the existing MRTS yard with direct entry to and from Rajaji Salai and a separate area for interchange passengers. Sources told Express that there is also an option to build new MRTS platform further south of existing platforms, which will be used by southern Railways.

Interestingly, a clearer picture is likely to merge on Friday when stakeholders meeting is scheduled. It is likely that a final shape would be given by the consultants who will present a draft final report which will focus on analysis of capital expenditure and the future capital and operating costs post-merger scenario. “This will identify the required capital investment needed to bring MRTS up to metro standards, including improvements identified in the interim report,” sources added.

“The operating and maintenance costs for the new metro-style service will be established and the projected financial viability of the new line will be indicated,” source added.

However, the main focus of the draft final report would be structuring the takeover. It will include the possibility of integrating MRTS within the existing CMRL structure or establishing it as separate company with CMRL taking over the role of an operator.

Factfile:
How MRTS will be upgraded to metro standard?
1. Beach station will be upgraded with new terminus
2. Fort and Park suburban and MRTS statiosn will be segregated with installation of lifts and escalators
3. All MRTS stations will be renovated with platform modications for metro rail coaches
4. New communications-based train control system for metro standard signalling
5. Installation of modern telecom systems at all stations including CCTV, passenger information systems, passenger announcements systems
6. Procurement of metro rolling stock with onboard communications based train control

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