Mumbai: The Railways has begun efforts to let Mumbai commuters see the exact real-time location of local trains by installing an indigenous GPS system. Once the project to install GPS devices in every local train is successful, commuters will be able to check the live status of trains on the RailOne application.
CRIS Holds Meeting With Officials
Recently, discussions were held at a meeting between the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) and senior railway officials on making the live locations of Central and Western Railway local trains available on the RailOne app. The meeting also discussed installing GPS devices in every local train rake to establish a system that can provide the train's precise location.
Local trains on both the Central and Western Railway networks in Mumbai operate 3,254 services daily using 288 train rakes. Although the RailOne app currently offers various railway services, it has not yet introduced a facility to access the live running status of Mumbai local trains. Officials said they discussed at the meeting how Central and Western Railway information could be used to introduce this facility.
Existing Yatri App System Reviewed
Officials clarified that the Mumbai division of Western Railway could provide information regarding local train timetables. However, maintaining accurate information in cases of train delays, sudden cancellations or other emergency situations remains a challenge. Currently, the Yatri app allows users to check the live status of local trains. Officials said they would examine the possibility of using the GPS system used by the Yatri app on the RailOne app.
Questions were also raised at the meeting about the accuracy and reliability of the information provided by the private service provider whose system the Yatri app uses. Officials pointed out that since the Railways are responsible for providing accurate information to passengers, they need to control the system.
Independent GPS Devices Under Consideration
Consequently, the option of installing GPS devices in every local train rake to track trains' actual locations came up for discussion. According to sources, further action will be taken after studying the use of the existing system and the possibility of installing independent GPS devices. However, no final decision has been taken on establishing a dedicated GPS system for the Railways and no definite timeline for the launch of this facility was announced at the meeting.
The meeting also discussed several other pending issues, including delays in ticket refunds on the RailOne app, the absence of refund status updates, the inclusion of Marathi and Gujarati languages in the app and instances of tickets being booked from restricted locations within railway premises.
Other issues raised during the meeting also included frequent outages of the e-auction and MERS portals, women passengers receiving only one berth under the Reservation Against Cancellation (RAC) system, the facility to deactivate R-Wallets and linking railway employees' passes with their HRMS IDs.
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