| Indian Railways News => | Topic started by eabhi200k on Nov 05, 2012 - 08:00:08 AM |
Title - Indicators flashing wrong time leave WR commuters confusedPosted by : eabhi200k on Nov 05, 2012 - 08:00:08 AM |
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On October 29 at 12.10 pm, an indicator on platform number two of Malad station on the Western Railway showed a train’s arrival time as 10 am. Puzzled commuters wondered if local trains had been delayed for some reason. However, not many may have imagined that the switch to a higher voltage of power supply could have led to the railway indicators going berserk.Malad is not an isolated case of indicators showing the wrong time.“The reason behind it is the 25,000 AC voltage current, which has replaced the 1,500 DC supply in March after the suburban section was converted to AC from DC. Now the power is too high and the indicators that were accustomed to 1,500 DC voltage are unable to sustain the 25,000 AC power supply. Thus, they hang or switch off automatically,” said a railway staff member at the station.“We are unable to tell whether the next train is fast or slow or what time it is going to arrive. Sometimes, indicators are switched off at Andheri station,” said a commuter Sunanda Singh, an Andheri resident. Commuters from Bandra station, too, are harrowed by failing local train indicators. “Many times, I left a fast train as the indicator showed that it is a slow train. When I talked to the railway staff, they could not give me a satisfactory answer,” said Shubha Joshi, an office-goer.When indicators were installed, they had power supply from the 1,500 DC line. But after the suburban section was converted to 25,000 volt AC from 1,500 volt DC, the faults with indicators emerged.Electricians have complained that even after repairing the indicators time and again, they tend to hang or turn off. “It is because of the fluctuation of power that these indicators fail. But we hope this problem will not persist,”’ said a WR official. |