In order to clear extra rush of passengers East Coast Railway decided extend the services of weekly special Express train services between Visakhapatnam– Kollam –Visakhapatnam as Bi-weekly special express trains till 14thJanuary, 2012.
1. Train No. 08569 Visakhapatnam – Kollam Express will leave Visakhapatnam at
09.00 a.m. o­n every Sunday and Thursday from 23.12.2012 to 13.01.2013.
2. Train No.08570 Kollam – Visakhapatnam will leave Kollam at 07.20 p.m. o­n every
Monday and Friday from 24.12.2012 to 14.01.2013.
Composition: Second class sitting-cum-Luggage Vans: 02,General: 04,
Sleeper Class: 08, 2ndAC: 01, 3rd AC: 01.Total = 16 Coaches
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Passengers are requested to make use of the extended special Express Train Service.

The Central Railways (CR) have finally got with the times, and have decided to connect with the public in a medium more appropriate for the digital age. With a dedicated Twitter account all set to provide regular updates, commuters will now be able to access the latest information regarding train cancellations, availability of seats and availability of tatkal quota on their mobile phones through the site.
The service was started last week, and daily updates are being put up on the Twitter handle ‘@CSTM_railinfo’. Though the initiative has not received a great response so far (it had only 8 followers till last night), railway authorities are confident that they will get a positive response very soon. “People are not aware about this new initiative, but soon it will be followed by many and will be useful to passengers,” said a CR...
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official.
Mukesh Nigam, divisional railway manager, CR, who has been following the initiative since the inception said that they have not advertised it as yet and Twitter users will come to know of the service through Twitter itself.
@CSTM_railinfo: The Twitter handle on which CR authorities will provide daily updates
“We are giving train updates like tatkal quota, megablocks, cancellations and accidents through our new Twitter account. This will facilitate passengers in getting their information with just a click. After we get a good response, we will provide more facilities in the future,” he said.
Toral Ahluwalia, a commuter from Jogeshwari said, “This is a fantastic initiative which has been started by the CR authorities. They should provide us with quick updates about the current situation, which will prove very useful for railway passengers.” Another passenger, Ashok Kumar said, “This should be followed up consistently and information has to be updated regularly. Many times in the past, a new service has been introduced with much excitement, only to be cancelled or disconnected later.”

To clear extra rush during the festive season and facilitate passengers in view of ensuing Diwali festival, o­ne AC Super Fast special train will be run for the benefit of passengers from Mumbai Central to New Delhi.
·Mumbai Central- New Delhi AC Super Fast Special Train
Train No. 04093 Mumbai Central – New Delhi AC Super Fast Special train will depart from Mumbai Centralat 11.15 hrs o­n 12th November, 15th November, 18thNovember, 21st November & 24th November, 2012 and reach New Delhi at 08.05 hrs. o­n the next day.

Similarly, Train No. 04094 New Delhi – Mumbai Central AC Super Fast Special train will depart from New Delhi at 06.20 hrs o­n 11th...
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November, 14th November, 17th November, 20th November and 23rd November, 2012 and reach Mumbai Central at 05.00 hrs. o­n the next day.
The train will halt at Borivali, Surat, Vadodara, Ratlam, Nagda, Kota, Mathura, Faridabad & Hazarat Nizamuddin stations in both directions
The train will have AC II Tier & AC III Tier coaches.
Booking for 04093 will open from 11th November, 2012.

Besides maintenance of law & order in the railway premises and in trains, the Railway Protection Force have often worked beyond their brief towards public well-being.In addition to working towards safe travel of passengers and protecting Railway property, the Force have often enlarging their ambit of duties in the public sphere walking the extra mile to deliver good public services. Some of the good work undertaken by RPF during the month of July 2012 is produced below:

ØOn 03.07.2012 RPF posted at Tughlakabad promptly came to the aid of a distraught 11 year old girl child who had failed to board the train with her family. The RPF immediately contacted the brother of the child on telephone and undertook the personal responsibility of handing over her to her parents safely.
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ØOn 04/05.07.2012, RPF posted at Sitapur station on source information found two criminals involved in cutting of cable wires at Signal points between Sitapur and Himpur stations. The Force caught the delinquents red-handed and further interrogation led them to village Vasana where a gang was operating in this activity of looting and burning of cable to recover wires. When the gang opened fire at the RPF personnel, the Force retaliated and successfully nabbed the culprits. A case has been registered against the offenders.
ØOn 05.07.2012, the RPF posted at Shakurbasti station found a lady suspiciously sitting on three heavy gunny bags on the station premises. Doubting her apprehensive behavior, the RPF who ordered opening of the bags found liqour pouches stuffed in three cartons. The incident was informed to GRP who registered a case under Delhi Excise Act against the lady. The lady named Savita W/o Dhramendra@ Sonu was arrested and produced before the Metropolitan Magistrate.
ØOn 05.07.2012, the RPF posted in Train No. 04035 AC Special train found an unclaimed bag with high value currency and items like Mobile etc. The bag was traced to the rightful owner and handed over duly to him.
ØOn 09.07.2012, on information from Station Supdt/Jind that wheat filled gunny bags were found strewn on the track, the RPF reached the spot. Registering a case against unknown miscreants, the RPF carried out further investigation and found that a gang of three men Roshan, Rajbir and Dharamvir were involved in the stealth pilferage of wheat bags from goods coaches and diverting them to a nearby village Kinana where they were sold for profit. Around 49 gunny bags of wheat with an estimated cost of Rs. 24500/- was recovered from the premises of the delinquents involved. A case has been registered against the delinquents.
ØOn 16.07.2012, the RPF posted at Tughlakabad found a male child aged 10 years on the station premises. On enquiry, the child named Raja S/o Nathuram stated that he ran away from his house as he was being harassed by his family members. The RPF had registered a case and handed over the child to Child welfare NGO in Delhi for his shelter.
ØOn 18.07.2012,the RPF manning the Sahranpur-Jammu section of Train No. 15651 found that the train had suddenly halted in mid-section of Darazpur-Muzaffarpurstations. The TTE posted on the train informed him that two passengers had slipped from the train. The RPF found two passengers, male and female, lying badly injured on the sides of the track. After helping them to the coach, the RPF informed Railway Doctor at Ambala of the medical emergency. The medical team at Ambala took over the passengers for necessary treatment.

The new railway timetable, which will come into effect on July 1, includes new services and revision of timings of existing trains in the Mysore division.
A release from the South Western Railway said that the Mysore-Shirdi Weekly Express, which was a temporary service, will be a full-fledged service under the new timetable, operating on a weekly basis. The Mysore-Sainagar Shirdi Weekly Express (16217) will leave Mysore on Mondays at 5.30 a.m. and reach Shirdi at 11.30 a.m. on Tuesdays.
In the return direction, the Sainagar-Shirdi Mysore Weekly Express (16218) will leave Shirdi at 11.45 p.m. on Tuesdays and reach Mysore at 6.55 a.m. on Thursdays.
The weekly express will have commercial stops at Mandya, Kengeri, Bangalore City, Bangalore Cantonment, Yelahanka, Hindupur, Dharmavaram,...
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Anantapur, Guntakal, Bellary, Hospet, Koppal, Gadag, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Solapur, Kurdwadi, Daund, Ahmednagar, Belapur and Puntamba stations in both directions.
The train will have 20 coaches, consisting of two AC 2-tier coaches, two AC 3-tier coaches, 11 second class sleepers, three general second class coaches and two second class luggage-cum-brake vans.
New trains between Mysore-Shravanabelagola, Mysore-Birur and Mysore-Chamarajanagar have been proposed, and the new timetable includes timings of these trains. However, the actual date of commencement of these services will be announced in due course, the release added.
The Mysore-Bangalore passenger (56231/56232), which used to run six days a week, will be converted to a daily service, as will the Mysore-Bangalore passenger (56237/56238).
The Dadar-Mysore Sharavathi Express (11035) will leave Dadar on Thursdays instead of Tuesdays. This will affect the departure of the Mysore-Dadar Sharavathi Express (11036), which will leave Mysore on Sundays instead of Thursdays.
The Nanjangud Town-Mysore Passenger (56205) will leave Nanjangud at 10.30 a.m. instead of 10.40 a.m. and reach Mysore at 11.20 a.m.
The Tirupati-Chamarajanagar Passenger (56213) will reach Mysore at 10.40 a.m. instead of 10.45 a.m. and leave at 10.55 a.m. instead of 11.10 a.m. from July 1.
The Mysore-Arsikere Passenger (56266) will leave Mysore at 6.45 p.m. instead of 6.20 p.m. and reach Arsikere at 10.45 p.m. instead of 10.25 p.m. The pairing train Arsikere-Mysore passenger (56265) will leave Arsikere at 5.45 p.m. instead of 6.10 p.m. and reach Mysore at 9.55 p.m. instead of 10 p.m.
The Chennai-Mysore Express (16222) will reach Bangalore at 4.30 a.m. instead of 4.50 a.m., while the Ajmer-Mysore Express (16209) will reach Bangalore at 4 a.m. instead of 4.30 a.m.
The Bangalore City-Mysore Passenger (56233) will leave Bangalore at 5 a.m. instead of 5.15 a.m., while the Bangalore City-Mysore Passenger (56232) will leave Bangalore at 9.20 p.m. instead of 9.30 p.m.

CHENNAI: Abhinav Singh, an IT professional, spent more than 12 hours at the Egmore railway reservation counter on Thursday night to book a tatkal ticket to Varanasi. When Singh got to the station at 8pm, he was ready for to wait overnight so he could be the first in line when the counter opened the next morning. But he found that four other people were already preparing to sleep in the corridor near the gate of the reservation centre.
In the morning, however, a railway police constable asked Singh and the four others to move aside and allowed a bunch of touts to stand at the head of the queue before the counter opened at 8am.
Many other passengers who have waited in vain for tatkal tickets complain that touts...
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have, through a combination of bribes to railway police constables and threats and physical intimidation of passengers, taken over reservation counters in the city.
Around 30 boys and young men between 15 and 25 are deployed by touts at the reservation counter in Egmore station every night. They are replaced at 8am by passengers who pay a sum to the tout to keep a position for them in the queue. The touts' boys do not allow anyone to get ahead of them in the queue, even those who arrive at the counters before them. They are trained to shout down or threaten any passenger who dares question them.
By midnight, there are usually at least 50 people sleeping in front of tatkal counters at railway stations in the city. The queue swells to 100 and then 150 between 3am and 5am. At the break of dawn, at least 200 people are waiting for the counters to open. The touts' boys allow passengers who have paid for their position to take their place as security officers look on but do nothing to stop them.
A senior railway official said they had recently tightened the rules to book tatkal tickets. "To prevent the tatkal booking system from being hijacked by touts and unauthorised agents, we have made it mandatory for a photocopy of an identity card to be attached to the reservation requisition slip. Passengers are asked to present the same ID card when they travel," he said.
While some railway officials and constables connive with the touts, but sometimes officers on their rounds identify touts and send them packing. Abhinav Singh said the assistant commercial manager (reservation) arrived at the counters the day the touts tried to take his place in the queue. "During validation of reservation forms and IDs, he identified the touts and asked them to leave the booking counter," Singh said.

WR successfully carried out the mega block between Churchgate–Andheri to complete the conversion of traction from Direct Current to Alternate Current between Churchgate–Vile Parle o­n Sunday, 5th February, 2012. The mega block was completed at 15.45 hrs, ahead of its scheduled timing of 16.30 hrs. With this, Western Railway has bid farewell to 84 years old DC traction o­n its suburban network which was started in 1928.
Shri Mahesh Kumar, General Manager, WR, visited Mahalaxmi electric sub-station and various sites along with senior railway officials and monitored the conversion work which was carried out by a strong men power of 800 workers and engineers of Electrical, Signalling & Telecommunication and Civil Engineering Deptts of WR under the leadership of Shri Mahesh Kumar.
During the block, extensive activities were carried out...
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meticulously with the commissioning of two sub-stations at Mahalaxmi and Bandra and seven switching stations at Marine Lines, Grant Road, Mumbai Central, Elphinstone Road, Mahim, Santacruz & Vile Parle.
3 transformers of 30 MVA were commissioned at Bandra sub-station while 2 transformers of 30 MVA have been commissioned at Mahalaxmi sub-station.
Shri Kul Bhushan, Member Electrical, Railway Board, New Delhi also inspected the DC-AC conversion work. General Manger, WR was also with him during the inspecton.
In the final stage of the block, the DC system was disconnected and AC system was connected and tested successfully.
Meanwhile, 124 trains were run between Andheri and Virar while 3 pairs of diesel run special trains were operated in the block section.
It was the final leg of DC-AC Conversion of WR's suburban section as the conversion from Borivali–Virar has been completed in 2010 and between Vile Parle–Borivali in 2011.
With this feat, new WR's suburban section is integrated with the rest of the country where the OHE is o­n Alternate Current. Alternate Current is the need of the hour as it has more efficiency and capacity and is also economical than Direct Current owing to less loss of energy in transmission.

Due to the yard remodeling work at Mumbai Central for the extension of platforms to accommodate 24 coaches trains, some Mail/Express and Passenger trains will be shifted to Dadar, Bandra Terminus and Andheri stations temporarily from 7th February to 21st March, 2012.

Accordingly, train no. 12902 Mumbai Cerntral-Ahmedabad Gujarat Mail and train no. 59442 Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central Passenger will be terminated at Dadar while train no. 59441 Mumbai Central-AhmedabadPassenger will start form Dadar duringthis period.

Train nos. 19023/19024 Mumbai Central-Firozpur Janata Express will terminate at and start from Bandra Terminus. Similarly, 09001/09002 Mumbai Central-Ahmedabad Tri-weekly special train will also start from and terminate at Bandra terminus during this period.
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59462 Dahanu Road-Mumbai Central Shuttle will be terminated at Andheri while 59024/59023 Mumbai Central-Valsad Fast Passenger will start from and terminate at Dadar from 15th February to 21st March, 2012.