TIME TABLES – INTRODUCTION
Time
table is a schedule in a table form, showing details of arrivals and departures
at every station
of all trains carrying passengers. These time tables are issued by every zonal
railway, generally
every six months. However, with effect from 1st July 1991, new time table is
issued once
a year in July only. On Indian Railways there is another time table,
"Trains at a Glance", which
is issued by the Railway Board and carries stoppages of important trains at
important stations
only all over the Indian Railways, as against the Zonal Time Table which
indicates stoppages
of all scheduled trains at every station on the railways. The objectives of
passenger time
table are as under:
1. information for intending passengers regarding
i.
schedules of arrivals and departures;
ii.
through sectional and suburban trains;
iv.
and the amenities and facilities available to the passengers at stations;
2. a guide to the railway staff
i.
in arranging trains crossings, precedence,
ii.
receipt and despatch at terminals, and
iii.
provision of motive power, crew, maintenance and other facilities;
3. a
guide to postal services for transmission of mail;
4. a
data base for calculating the requirements of rolling stock; locomotives and
running staff;
5.
To satisfy statutory requirements. Section 65 of the Indian Railway Act lays
down that railways
must exhibit time tables for the guidance of the public.
The
origin of Railway time table is very interesting. Railways in Great Britain,
where the railways
started first, were hesitant to issue time tables and advertised fixed
schedules of trains they
were running. With the teething problems galore, they were not sure whether
they would be able
to live up the commitments after they tell the public fixed schedules of their
trains. At that time,
one Mr. Bradshaw used to sell maps. In order to increase his sales of maps, he
also started publishing
schedules of the trains which could take people to the places of which he used
to sell maps.
Railway companies consented to his publishing the time tables as it did not
involve any commitment
on their part. Soon, however, they realised the usefulness of advertisements of
the fixed
timings as their clientele went up and the companies started issuing the time
tables themselves.
With the passage of time, teething problems were also taken care of. Today,
there is statutory
obligation in some of the countries, for the Railway companies to publish their schedules.
Indian Railways are required to do so under Section 49 of Indian Railways Act,
1989.
TYPES OF TIME TABLES:
Time Tables can be divided into two categories:
(1) For passengers
(a)
Zonal Time Table and Guide - This time table is published annually by each of
the zonal railways.
In addition to the train timings, there is additional information which is
useful for the passengers.
This mainly relates to rules regarding reservation, refunds, and cancellations
of confirmed
booking, fare tables and other facilities which Railway administrations provide
for the convenience
of passengers. Copies of these time tables are available for sale at the
booking offices
and book stalls.
(b)
Trains at a Glance - This is an abstract form of time table for all Indian Railways.
Important trains
are shown with time of arrivals and departures at important stations right from
the originating
station to the terminating station in one table only. Users have, therefore,
not to refer to a
number of tables to find out the schedule of a particular train. Main points of
information for passengers
are also given.
(c)
Military Time Table - This time table is not made available for general public.
Defence is one of
very big users of rail infrastructure and a number of special trains for
Defence are run by Railways.
In order that these trains can be run at short notice, we have detailed timings
of such trains
worked out, which are also revised along with revision in the public time
tables from time to
time. These timings are kept secret.
(2) For Railway staff
(a)
Staff copy of public time table - Train timings portion of zonal time table,
without the additional
pages for guidance of passengers and advertisements, is bound and copies given
to staff
dealing with passengers for their guidance.
(b)
Working Time Table - Large amount of information is required to be conveyed to
the railway staff
connected with running of trains and maintenance of the infrastructure on the
railways. They
must not only know the timings of the trains but also a lot of information
about the track, signals
and other facilities and this information is conveyed to the staff through the
working time tables.
These time tables are printed division wise, separately for passenger and goods
trains. It is desirable
for all railway officers to familiarize themselves with these time tables.
(c)
Graphic Time Tables - These time tables are in the graph form and are prepared
for the guidance
of the Control staff. These time tables are prepared section wise, indicating
over a graph
not only Mail, Express and Passenger trains, but also Goods trains that can be
run during 24
hours. These are also called 'Master Charts'. These are generally displayed in
the front of the Section
Controllers in their cabins, so that they can constantly relate actual running
of trains to the
fixed schedules laid down in the time tables.
FACTORS INFLUENCING FRAMING OF TIME TABLES:
As seen earlier, time tables are for
the benefit of users as well as railways. Factors that influence framing of a
time table can also be
broadly classified into two categories:
(1) Users Requirement
(a)
Departure and arrivals - Train journeys in India are generally long and take a
lot of time. It is convenient
to the passengers to leave originating station in the evening and arrive at the destination
in the morning so that they are able to perform the journey without wasting any working
time during the day. No wonder, most of the trains from the major cities leave
in the evening
and arrive in the morning. Passengers performing journeys to and from important stations
enroute also like the trains to arrive at convenient timings and not in the
middle of the night.
All this is always not possible to accommodate, but efforts are made by
Railways to adjust timings
in such a manner that this requirement of passengers is kept in mind. With the
increase in the
number of trains, staggering of departures and arrivals become unavoidable,
otherwise a lot
of
additional capacity would be required at the terminals and sections to deal
with large number of
trains in the evenings and mornings. This would also lead to idling of assets
for bulk of the time
as no trains would be scheduled to leave or arrive around mid day or mid night.
Trains should
touch important cities and junctions at convenient time.
(b)
Connections at junctions - Railway trains run between selected pair of
stations. Large number of
passengers travel to stations which are not served by direct trains. They have,
therefore, to change
trains at junction stations. It is, therefore, the requirement of the
passengers that the connecting
trains should leave the connecting junction station as soon after the arrival
of the first train
as possible, so that they are not required to waste a lot of time waiting for
the next train. It is
also necessary that such connections are not so very tight that the passengers
miss the previous train.
Railways have, therefore, to design their time tables in such a manner that
passengers are reasonably
assured to connection within about an hour or two of the arrival of the
previous train. At
certain junctions, staff are authorised to detain connecting trains up to a
limit if an earlier train is
running late.
(c)
Halts for meals, etc. - Since railway passengers have to travel long distances
and all trains are not
equipped with catering facilities, halts at meal timings are provided at
stations having facilities
for meals, refreshments. These halts are long enough to buy their requirements
from the platform.
(d)
Overall speed - Whatever the requirement of passengers enroute, every long
distance passenger
desires to complete his journey as early as possible. There is, therefore, need
to provide
fast, long distance trains to cut down journey time of bulk of the passengers.
Railways have,
therefore, introduced a large number of super fast trains during the last
decade or so.
(e)
Range of travel distance - From the view point of travel distance, railway
passengers can be classified
into three categories:
i.
Short distance - This category of passengers travel between major industrial
commercial centres
or capital/district cities and town or villages around such major cities. This
group of passengers
generally live in surrounding town and villages and commute to the city centre/industrial
centres for employment regularly. The travel distance is generally up to about
80 kilometres. In very rare cases, people travel on regular basis for more than
80 kilometres
also. These passengers like to reach the cities in the morning hours to be able
to
attend
offices/factories and want to go back as early as possible after the office is
closed so as to
arrive at their residence in the evening. These passengers generally travel in
groups as they belong
to the same place and travel together regularly. Their livelihood is dependent
on punctual
running of trains. They are very vociferous and do not tolerate changes which
do not
suit them. At locations where industries work in shifts, there is traffic
around such locations
both ways. It is, therefore, essential for the Railways to provide stoppages
for passenger
trains for the category of passengers at convenient timings. At a few places,
even
long
distance trains are provided halts to enable these passengers to reach their
work centres in
time.
ii.
Medium distance - In this group passengers whose range of travel falls between
80 to 300 kilometres
are included. Some of these passengers travel between two important cities and prefer
to have over night trains. Alternatively, they use long distance trains which
are fast, but
finding accommodation on such long distance trains may be a bit difficult. A
large number
of passengers in this group are those who work in major cities and have roots
in places
where they are not able to go back every day. They stay at the place of their
work and visit
their native place frequently, say once or twice a month. Another section of
this group are
those passengers who travel mainly on social or business occasion from one
village/town to
another. They require at least one train a day in each direction so that they
can travel conveniently.
iii.
Long distance - These passengers prefer fast trains with increased level of
comfort. They require
trains which do not have many stops enroute and are able to cover the entire
journey in
as short a time as possible.
(2) Operator's Requirement
This
has to be kept in mind that the trains are run for the use of passengers and
their basic requirements
are supreme. Railways make efforts to ensure that they are able to cater to all reasonable
requirements of the users. There are, however, certain departmental
requirements which
influence framing of time table. These can broadly be classified into the following categories:
(a)
Infra structural requirements - While continuous exercises to augment infra
structural facilities
available for running of trains continue, these do act as a constraint to
introduction of more
number of trains as well as timings when trains can be scheduled. Terminal
facilities like platforms,
stabling lines, examination lines and repair facilities at the passenger
terminals influence
not only introduction of additional trains, but also timings of the trains. As
there is only a
certain number of trains which can be attended to during a given time,
departures and arrivals of
the trains have to be so spaced as to permit handling at the terminals
depending upon the layout
at the terminals. Simultaneous departure of one train and reception of another
train may also
not be possible. While framing time table, therefore, an interval between the
two operations would
be required.
Availability
of coaches and locomotives is another factor which influences scheduling of
trains. Since
these are costly assets, proper use of them has to be maintained.
Railway
line also has a capacity which is provided based on certain requirements. This
limits the number
of trains that can run and the timing at which those trains can be run. It may
be convenient
for the passengers to travel at a given time but lack of adequate line capacity
may force
railways to run the trains at time which may not be suitable to the passengers.
These
infra structural constraints can be overcome but this is very costly
proposition. Even when adequate
funds are available, there is long gestation period between planning and
installation of facilities.
This problem is particularly acute in developing countries.
(b) Maintenance
requirements - The infrastructure required to run the trains also need maintenance
periodically. The train services are so time tabled so as to enable the
maintenance of rakes
and locomotives at terminals as well as at intermediate points. Most of the
routine maintenance
of coaches and locomotives is attended to at one of the terminals, which is considered
as the base and is responsible for proper mechanical condition of the
equipment. This is
also called 'Primary Maintenance'. Maintenance at the terminal at the other end
is called 'Secondary
Maintenance'. In addition, routine examination is carried out at important
intermediate
stations also.
Another
requirement of coaches enroute is cleaning, watering and that of locomotives,
watering and
fuelling for which time also has to be provided. In addition to the rolling
stock, fixed installations
like track, platforms, signals and electrical overhead equipment (OHE) also
need repairs.
Time tables provide a suitable block of time during day light hours for this
maintenance. Efforts
are made to ensure that no passenger train is scheduled during this block of
time so that equipment
can be maintained in proper fettle.
(c)
Operational requirement - In the running of trains, there are a number of
operational factors which
have to be provided in the time table. There are some trains which run faster
than others. Slower
trains have, therefore, to be stopped to give precedence to fast trains. In
addition, on a single
line section, only one train can run at a time in a block section. We generally
do not have facilities
on such sections where two trains running in the opposite direction to each
other can cross
without one of them being stopped. Generally less important train is scheduled
to stop for crossing
of fast train. Similarly, number of platforms at terminals as well as at
important junction stations
may be limited and a train may be delayed for reception till an earlier train
vacates the platform.
There
are a number of slip coaches which are required to be attached or detached at
junction stations.
Additional halt is required to be provided for performing shunting for this
purpose. This also
necessarily slows down the trains. Indian Railways have, therefore, taken a
conscious decision
to reduce the number of slip coaches wherever possible and it is not very
inconvenient to
passengers to change trains. A large number of slip coaches have already been
discontinued and
trains accelerated.
(d)
Change of locomotives - Locomotives required to be changed either at places
where traction changes
or at stations where loco shed is located and locomotives are required to go to
the shed as
per the loco link.
(e)
Loading/unloading of parcels/luggage - Stations having lot of luggage of
passengers and parcels
are also required to be provided additional time to permit loading/unloading.
(f)
Staff requirement - There is a limited time up to which railway staff is
expected to perform their
duties. They have, therefore, to take over and made over their charge at fixed
locations. A bit
of additional time is provided for the staff to examine the equipment and
documents etc., being
taken over.
(g)
Unforeseen circumstances - There are a number of circumstances like signal
failure, alarm chain
pulling, occasional failures for which provision has to be kept. If no
provision for such eventualities
is kept, it is likely that the trains may run late frequently. This is
generally up to the maximum
of 3% of the total running time and is called 'traffic recovery time' and is
provided short
of big junctions, divisional/zonal interchange points. It may, however, be
noted that in actual
practice on most of the railways very little traffic recovery time is
available.
IMPORTANT CONNOTATIONS USED IN CONNECTION WITH TIME TABLE:
1. Maximum Permissible Speed (MPS) -
This
is the speed which a Loco Pilot cannot exceed. This is also called technical
speed and is dependent
upon the technical condition of the track, signalling and rolling stock in use.
It is generally
different for different sections and trains. Most of the express trains on
Indian Railways
have MPS of 100 kmph. In order to increase this speed limit, signalling and
track need to
be carried out and Commissioner of Railway Safety has to satisfy himself before
he permits this
limit to be enhanced. Very few super fast trains have MPS higher than 100 kmph.
Our fastest train
so far was Rajdhani Express between Howrah and New Delhi (130 kmph). But with
the introduction
of Shatabdi Express between NDLS - JHS, the fastest booked speed is now 140
kmph
between NDLS - AGC, and 130 kmph between AGC - JHS.
2. Booked Speed -
This
is the speed which determines the normal running time of the trains and on the
basis ofwhich
time table is prepared. This is generally 10% less than the maximum permissible
speed.
3. Average Running Speed -
This
is the average speed of the train on run. For calculating this, total time
consumed in halts is deducted
from the total time taken by a train between originating and termination
stations.
4. Commercial Speed / Overall Speed -
This
is the average time taken by the train per hour from its start to termination.
Long distance passengers
are concerned with this. They are not interested how fast a train runs between
the stations.
What they are concerned about is how fast it can reach its destination.
5. Speed Restriction -
Maximum
permissible speed and booked speed relate to the particular section of the
railway engine.
Actual condition of the track bridges, curves and nature of signalling at
certain stations may
require the trains to be run at speeds which should be lower than the booked
speed of a particular
train. For this, special speed restrictions are imposed, which are of two
types:
a.
Permanent Speed Restrictions - These speed restrictions are the ones which are
supposed to be
for sufficiently long duration and are mentioned in the Working Time Table.
Since copies of
the Working Time Table are available with the train crew, no other intimation
is required to
be given to them on day to day basis. The time which the trains are expected to
lose in observing
its restrictions is built into the running time and is time tabled accordingly.
These restrictions
last the currency of a time table and are reviewed at the time of revision in
the time
table.
b.
Temporary Speed Restrictions - A number of speed restrictions may have to be
imposed for a short
duration either on account of defects in track and related equipment or to
facilitate repairs
to the track and OHE and signalling installations. Requirement of time for such repairs
is assessed well in time before a new time table is introduced and this time is separately
provided for in the time table and is called 'Engineering Allowance' (EA). This time
is also provided in the time table short of junction stations or at the
divisional/zonal interchange
points. If there are repair works elsewhere on the section, trains would run
late and
this would be adjusted before the junction interchange points.
6.Minimum Running Time
This
is the time which a train should take between two stations when running at
maximum permissible
speed. This is calculated taking into consideration the permanent speed
restrictions that
may be in force from time to time in the concerned sections. This would be
different for different
trains and the Loco Pilot is in no case permitted to take less than the minimum
running time
relevant to his train. Guards of the trains and Section Controller keep a watch
on this aspect so
that in case of over-speeding by the Loco Pilots, they may take steps to check
them.
7.Normal Running Time
This
time is based on the booked speed of the train and is generally about 10% more
than the minimum
running time. The Loco Pilot is expected to run faster to the minimum running
time when
running late and is expected to make up time.
8.Calculation of Running Time
Calculation of running time is based on a number of factors, viz.:
a.
Distance between the two stations
b.
Hauling power of the locomotive
c.
Load of the train
d.
Permissible speeds
e.
Permanent speed restrictions
f.
Gradients and curves
g.
Time required for acceleration and deceleration.
This
time is calculated with the help of computer by RDSO and is further validated
through trials.
9.Authorised Detentions
This
is a time for which a train can be detained at a junction station to wait for
another train running
late in order to facilitate passengers to maintain connections at the junction
stations, some
trains can be detained for a specific period, after this detention the train
can give connection
to another nominated train so that undue hardship to the passengers is not
caused. These
are, however, the outer limits and connecting train cannot be detained, if it
is not likely to connect
the trains to be connected within the prescribed limit. This is given in the
Working Time Table.
Working & Public Time Table:
A
Working Time Table is published simultaneously for each division, for the
exclusive use of Railway
Staff. The difference between Public Time Table and Working Time Table
mentioned below:
PUBLIC TIME TABLE:
1.
Issue on payment
2.
Information is applicable to all the stations in zone.
3.
These are of various types:
a)
Detailed time Table - Zone wise
b)
Abstract Time Table
c)
Sheet Time Table
d)
Trains at a glance
4.
Map on Zonal Railway, Indian Railways is provided.
5.
Facilities to passengers like retiring room, Information about tourist spots
are mentioned.
6.
Timings of daily, non daily passengers, Mail/Exp. trains Arr. And Dep. are
mentioned.
7.
It contains information about reservations, refunds
WORKING TIME TABLE:
1.
Issued free of cost to the staff of the division
2.
Information/Instructions applicable to only to a particular division.
3.
Only one is issued
4.
Divisional map is provided.
5.
Operational requirements are mentioned.
6.
Timings on Arr./ Dep, Run through of all trains running in the division is
mentioned.
7.
It contains rules and regulations with regard to
a.
Marshalling
b.
Movement of ODC
c.
Location of MRT/ART and their target time etc.,
