Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Indian Railway to start :Real-time Train Information System (RTIS) for tracking trains

Fade up of getting inaccurate  information on movement of trains? Not able to get correct information about timing of trains? Help is expected soon with the Railways going ahead with the Rs 110 crore satellite-based system to replace manual tracking of trains to provide its exact position on real-time basis.
The real-time train information system (RTIS) aims to provide train running information to the public through internet, SMS on mobile phones, call centres and through train indication boards at stations.
It will also give information to  passengers travelling in train through the provision of display system inside the coaches. Indian railway has already started provision of having internet in some trains.
“Efforts are on to replace the manual recording system with RTIS by connecting 8,000 trains and 8,177 stations across the country,” said a senior Railway Ministry official.
To keep track of trains, currently station masters call up the control room at the divisional headquarters every time a train passes their station.

Railways adopt 5 digit number scheme to monitor trains

The new scheme will create a unique identification number for each train to better monitor the movement of trains across the country and to make the tracking system more logical.
Indian Railways "smoothly" migrated to a five digit number scheme to monitor movement of passenger trains more effectively and facilitate management of train information scientifically for public convenience.
"The migration went of smoothly as the date upgradation was carried out in the systems overnight to cause least inconvenience to passengers," said a Railway Ministry official.
The pan-India 139 rail enquiry system has also added a new number '7' in the system to enable passengers find the new train numbers.
The migration to five digit number had also become necessary as the four digit numbering scheme had got exhausted with the Indian Railways running more than 10,000 trains every day, the official said.
To make the transition smooth and simple, only a prefix of the digit 1 (one) has been added to the four-digit numbers of the existing trains.
They include all scheduled and regular express or mail and superfast trains including the Durontos, Yuva Trains, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi, Garibrath and Sampark Kranti Express trains.
For example, under the new scheme, the number of Kolkata Rajdhani from now on would be 12302 and 12952 for Mumbai Rajdhani.
"The new system will also make the numbering of trains of railways more scientific, logical, uniform and computer-friendly besides integrating passenger and suburban train services in various information systems," the official said.
The Railways said the initiative will create a unique train number which will be a national level identity for each train and will cover all the passenger-carrying trains running in the Indian Railways network.
IRCTC, the official agency of Indian Railways for issuing e-tickets and i-tickets through its website www.irctc.co.in, said it "has already begun printing the five digit train numbers on its E Tickets and I Tickets for any date of journey, after 20 December 2010."
The special trains run by the Railways during holiday and festival season will also be numbered on the pattern of the mail and express trains except that they shall have the prefix of digit '0' (zero).
This shall apply to all special trains, whether superfast, express or passenger train in character, running between any pair of destinations, the Railway statement added.

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