Scores of Mumbaikars have a common railway complaint – the estimated arrival time of the local trains displayed at railway stations often doesn't match with the real time of the trains' arrival.
This also leads to confusion, as commuters sometimes end up boarding the wrong trains. The estimated time of arrival (ETA) has nothing to do with punctuality; these ETA indicators' sole purpose is to let commuters know exactly when the next train is due.
For instance, if you are waiting at Borivali station's platform number three, the ETA will tell you the next train to Virar will arrive in the next three minutes. The problem across Mumbai's suburban stations is, either the train doesn't arrive as per the ETA, or arrives before time.
The Free Press Journal reporters visited around a dozen stations on the Western line, and the Central Main and Harbour lines during the peak and non-peak hours, surveyed
the timing of around 250 local trains, and found that a whooping 50% of trains did not arrive at the stations as per the ETA.
The Test Drive
The major stations we covered were Dadar, Kurla, Thane, Kalyan, Matunga Road, Andheri, Chunabhatti and Vashi and monitored the trains on both fast and slow lines. On the Central Railway, we monitored 150 locals and found 74 trains notin sync with the ETA. On the Western line, out of 100 trains we monitored, 51 trains' arrival time differed with that displayed by the ETA indicators.
Kurla Platform No. 1
ETA: The ETA showed 6 pm and the Thane slow local was expected to arrive in 13 minutes.
Actual time: The train arrived at 5.58 pm and within a minute the ETA monitor jumped from 13 minutes to one minute.
Matunga Road
ETA: A 3.33 pm Churchgate-bound train was scheduled to arrive at 3.31 pm as per the ETA which showed three minutes.
Actual Time: The train arrived a minute earlier.
Kurla station | Photo Credit: Bhushan Koyande
The train arrived at 5.58 pm and within a minute the ETA monitor jumped from 13 minutes to one minute. | Photo Credit: Bhushan Koyande
Photo Credit: Bhushan Koyande
At Platform number 6 of Kurla Platform indicators were showing 4.06 pm. The CSMT fast local was expected to arrive in 9 minutes, but the train reached in just two minutes i.e. at 4.08 pm but indicators were still showing expected arrival time as 9 minutes. However, the train was standing on the platform. | Photo Credit: Bhushan Koyande
On Platform number 4 of Dadar station indicators were showing 3.33 pm Titwala fast air-conditioned local train expected to arrive in 14 minutes. According to station watch accurate time was 3.31 pm. Train arrived in just one minute but expected arrival time of train was still showing 14 minutes. | Photo Credit: Bhushan Koyande
On Platform number 6 of Kurla station indicators were showing 4.22 pm CSMT fast local expected to arrive in 20 minutes. Time was also 4.20 pm as per station watch , train reached in just two minutes which is at 4.22 pm , but expected arrival time was still showing 20 minutes on the indicators | Photo Credit: Bhushan Koyande
(Kamal Mishra, Shashank Rao, Salman Ansari and Bhushan Koyande worked on this story)
