IEOR students and faculty participate in study to analyse Mumbai's suburban rail network

 An Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) study could hold the key to a better commute, with more trains and fewer delays due to congestion along the choked Churchgate-Virar corridor.

Western Railways (WR) has asked the top brains of IIT-B’s Operations Research Department to study its train services and suggest technical measures to increase the frequency of trains and help save precious time lost while changing tracks and passing signals between Virar and Churchgate stations.

The team is already working on its pilot project on the congested Kandivali-Dahisar stretch and has even given presentations and technical guidance to WR officials.

“WR runs 1,250 trains daily. There are hundreds of signals and crossing points where local trains are diverted from one track to another at a slow speed. We have given the IIT team all the data and have asked them to analyse it and suggest solutions,” said a senior WR official. He added that a recent presentation given by IIT brought to their notice the frequent delays caused at Borivali, the biggest bottleneck station. Most Virar bound trains crossing platform 4 on their way to Dahisar were diverted to the slow track, wasting over five minutes.

If these problems are taken care of, WR will be able to increase the frequency of trains as well easen the congestion. At the moment, during peak hours, local trains run with a headway of around three minutes.

“There is a huge demand to run more trains, especially between Virar and Bandra, but as per the existing time table, it is difficult to create space to add more trains,’ said a WR official. “It’s time to improve the existing infrastructure and remove some crossing points to avoid unnecessary delay.” Sharat Chandrayan, Chief PRO for WR, said, “The study will help us optimise our resources. Hopefully the end result will benefit our passengers as more services can be run.”