Delays in Up suburban trains everyday in Central Railway Mumbai

No doubt, suburban trains are lifeline of Mumbai thus it is important they run all the time 7 days of the week and 365 days a year.

Thanks to dedicated team of Railway officials who work round the clock and on weekends to ensure the lifeline is running. 

But there are certain operational aspects which inhibit this inspite of best efforts, let me explain.

Trains in down direction reach their destination late due to various reasons and thus start their return journey later than the scheduled time. Suburban trains running long distances like Kasara, Karjat or Asangaon are often delayed in both directions. 

When these trains reach Kalyan or Thane in UP direction, trains which are running on-schedule or scheduled later get precedence and come on main up line. This leads to suburban trains running late, do not get clear block and have to run with Yellow or double Yellow aspect till Dadar/CSMT. The motorman of on-time train make best efforts to not reach earlier (3 mins) than scheduled time at the next stop thus the trains trailing them cannot catch-up with time inspite of rake capacity. Medha/Siemens rake are much more powerful than earlier rakes.

What is important noting is, someone who has started his journey at 60-90 mins earlier will only get delayed further without any scope to catch-up, as compared to anyone who is travelling from say Dombivli or Thane.

In order to bridge the delay, a operational suggestion 

1. All suburban trains running in UP direction run with 0:00 timing, Indicator only displays stops
2. Passenger's in between keen to know what is train destination or the interim stops so as to make the decision to board or skip, the upcoming train
3. Motorman make best use of clear signal and reaches Dadar/CSMT in best possible time no worry of early departure regulation
4. All late trains running catch-up with lost time and passenger reach the destination maybe just few mins late than original delay.

Similarly, the new timetable needs to consider revising time between stations as the running speed has improved drastically over the years with superior quality/powerful rakes.