MRTS CHENNAI - PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

I came across an article on Mass Rapid Transport system (MRTS) in Chennai region.
The article is focussed at the shortcomings of the MRTS system especially in the following matters - Project Planning, Project Management, Operations, Integration with the other transport systems & Political Issues.

The article focuses on the journey of the planning stages to the current condition.The current condition is that, though MRTS saves time during the peak hours, the load factor is hardly 10% due to the quality of the service and the public security concerns. The flaws that I could target are as following:-

1. The planning stage -
To minimize the costs and considering the city planning issues, the routing of the MRTS was done along the river line of th city.
This did not consider the proximity issues related with the population nuclei of the city.
The train stations designed are not proper and these are at different locations than the highest population densities.

2. Project Management -
The project is 50-50 project between the Indian railways and the Govt. Of tamilnadu. The project started in 1985 and took almost 16 years to complete the Rs.11.2 Crores project.
For any city development project, this timeline is huge.
One might not forecast the city growth and the civil transport need estimation over this long period of time.

3. Operations –
The transport operations are based on – Load factor, quality of the service, security in the service.
The load factor being very less, (less than 10%), the frequency of the shuttle trains running is very low. Which in turns pulls lower customers and the vicious circle continues.
The quality of the service has two major factors – during the journey and other than journey.
Inadequate staffing is a major concern for this. Also the condition of the shuttle trains is poor pertaining to the losses its occurring and the load factor.
Security in the MRTS is challengeable as there had been many cases of theft and female abuse and harassments.

4. Integration with other systems-
Integration with other transport systems are very important especially – bus routings, auto rickshaws and private vehicles.
The train stations should be well supported by the other public systems. Initially separate buses were scheduled for the train stations but the service was discontinued.
Also the parking provided for private vehicles were not secure enough. This added to the decline in parking users.

5. Political Issues –
Did not understand much about this.

THE MAIN AIM OF THIS BLOG IS - CAN YOU SUGGEST SOLUTIONS FOR THIS??

Following are some solutions –
1. Go for Public-private partnership model and make it profitable.
2. Selling of train station properties to the merchandise
3. Integration with other transport systems.
4. Running of train shuttles with lower number of CONTAINERS... (DABBAs)
5. Add new routings to the existing ones....
6. Sell to Indian rail completely; let them do what they can do about this... (hehe)

Things to consider :-
1. Trade off between planning horizon and effectiveness
2. REMEDIES AT THIS POINT OF TIME... – immediate solution
3. PROFIT MAKING is not THE ONLY MOTIVE – Public Service remains the MAIN AIM...

EXTRAPOLATIONS:-
1. PUNE – SKY BUS model...

SUCCESS STORIES:-

1. DELHI METRO...