Commuters using suburban train services would soon be able to know the real-time arrival of trains as the Southern Railway has started work on installing global positioning system (GPS) devices on electrical multiple unit (EMU) trains.
This follows the installation of GPS devices in over 3,000 buses by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) to provide real-time information of bus movement through the Chennai bus app.
At present, commuters depend on the time table issued by the Chennai division of the operation of EMU trains in the sections of Beach-Tambaram-Chengalpet, Moore Market complex railway station-Avadi and Arakkonam, Beach to Gummidipoondi and the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) operated from Beach to Velachery.
While officials of the Chennai division of the Southern Railway, which is involved in the operation of suburban train services, say that punctuality of the suburban services was being maintained at 95%, commuters on thBeach-Tambaram and MMC-Avadi and Tiruvallur sections complain that punctuality is not maintained during peak hours. Also in some stations, the delay is not being announced to the commuters despite having a public address system, they say.
A senior official of the Chennai division said taking into consideration the absence of any information about operation of suburban trains where real time EMU services are not available, a GPS-based system has been proposed to be implemented in all the suburban trains. Under this project the GPS integrated with the National Train Enquiry System (NTES) would relay real time information of the arrival and departure of the suburban trains, he added.
The Chennai division under the first phase is installing GPS in 20 EMUs at the car shed in Avadi and real time information would start functioning from January next year. The process of installing GPS in the remaining EMUs would be completed by December next year.
