Title - New system to monitor Metro trains

KOLKATA: Monitoring an en-route train got will become easier from Thursday with Metro Railway installing a new Train Management System (TMS) which incorporates a networked data logger to automatically chart their positions. Officials say that this system will enable them to prevent unnecessary delays. This is essential as trains run at five-minute intervals during the morning and evening peak hours and even a minutes delay services during the morning and evening peak hours are at five-minute intervals. Even a delay of a minute can throw the schedule haywire.According to them, the TMS is a precursor to the proposed Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) which will be introduced by September this year. If the new system functions properly, there will be relief for commuters who have to suffer at times due to disruption in services.This train management system will help the data-loggers log down the exact time of the arrival and departure of the train to and from each station with the help of the 'track circuit' - an electrical device in the form of a censor installed on the railway tracks to detect the movement of the train along the track and thus provide information to the signallers. "It will be like the black-box of the metro trains. It will automatically log down the exact time and send the details to the data-loggers. Earlier, it was not possible to do it manually," said Protyush Ghosh, DGMG,Metro Railway.

Each station has also got a video camera installed to under this system.The data-loggers can also get the panoramic view of all the 23 platforms and real time line diagram display of train movement between throughout the DumDum to New Garia metro route on a 67 -inches Large Video Wall System. In case there is a congestion on the route, it will be easy to regulate the glitches and avoid undue detentions of the following trains.

Despite the video monitoring on every station , this system cannot help control the metro suicide cases. "We have to depend on our staff to control the suicides manually," said PB Murthy, outgoing general manager, Metro Railway. Metro Railway also plans to get 50 more trains by the end of fiscal year to smoothly implement the proposed services run at 4-minutes interval, as proposed by railway minister Mukul Roy. Metro now runs 270 services every day.