Decongesting Terminal Stations and Sections over Indian Railways by Circular Rail Operations

Train operations all over the world started on a point-to-point basis with short duration stoppages in between for passengers to board and deboard and for attending to commercial, operating or passenger requirements. That is still the case except for some light metro type urban rail networks operating in some cities. Efforts have been made worldwide to increase the number of lines, remodel yards, and introduce technology such as Communication based train control (CBTC) and electronic interlocking to increase the number of trains that can operate, despite the fact that the number of trains has multiplied and those sectional capacities utilization is above 100%. But the pattern of operation has been the same. A typical train travels between stations A and B with both A and B acting as starting and destination stations in forward and return journeys. Every train takes hours to get ready for the journey in either direction. Also, many times these source/destination stations are located in heavily congested rail networks. In this study, we have developed an alternative philosophy for running trains that utilizes computerization, linked networks, other routes, and technological developments to run trains on circular tracks with a single stop serving as both the source and destination station. Passengers are allowed to book their seats from any station to any station in between. The time table proposed has been taken from the special on demand trains that ran in 2023. Thus, effectively, the congestion on the destination station and section in forward journey (and starting station/ section in return journey) has been reduced to almost zero. The case study in this paper is for Mumbai Division, Central Railway.