RAILWAY INFORMATION SYSTEM

SUBMITTED TO: MS. ROMA CHAUHAN

SUBMITTED BY: (SEC. B) ISHAN GUPTA KOMAL GUPTA HIMANSHU VASHIST HIMANSHU CHABRA MANISH KUMAR

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
On the successful completion of this project I would like to express gratitude to all my group members and the people who have helped me in completion of this project. I wish to extend my deep and sincere gratitude to Ms. ROMA, lecturer, PGDM to take out time from her busy schedules to provide me with her valuable guidance at the time of need and helped me whole heartedly to achieve the ultimate goal of the study.

I would also like to express my gratitude towards my friends and other associates for providing me with their valuable inputs.

Ishan Gupta (On behalf of my whole group)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
y ABOUT INFORMATION SYSTEMS USED IN RAILWAYS y FREIGHT OPERATIONS INFORMATION SYSTEM (FOIS) y E Working System (Electronic file Movement and Tracking) y Integrated Coaching Management System(ICMS) y CONCERT y Comprehensive Payroll Processing System for DLW Varanasi y GIS y Recommendations and conclusion

TABLE/ IMAGES IN PROJECT REPORT

PARTICULARS
PRS NTES

PAGE NO
18 19

Methods of spatial and attribute information input in GIS 22 Designed Software for collecting data by GPS Data Collection of England Railway Installation of digital camera on Derezin (trolley) Finding the coordinate of system by time Input and introduction of feature type to DGSRAIL
23 24 26 26 27

OVERVIEW
The project report basically emphasizes on the implementation of management information system in the various organizations which has helped in the smooth functioning of the various departments. MIS produces information products that support many of the day-to-day decision-making needs of managers and business professionals. Management Information System (MIS) is a subset of the overall internal controls of a business covering the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures by management accountants to solving business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy. At the start, in businesses and other organizations, internal reporting was made manually and only periodically, as a by-product of the accounting system and with some additional statistics, and gave limited and delayed information on management performances. In their infancy, business computers were used for the practical business of computing the payroll and keeping track of accounts payable and accounts receivable. As applications were developed that provided managers with information about sales, inventories, and other data that would help in managing the enterprise, the term "MIS" arose to describe these kinds of applications. Today, the term is used broadly in a number of contexts and includes (but is not limited to): decision support systems, resource and people management applications, project management, and database retrieval application. Information Technology plays a vital role not only in a particular field, it provides various kinds of solutions and services to the various problems prevailing in many fields. Indian Railways exploits information technology at the maximum extent. It uses the information technology in an efficient way for providing better passenger services. The online reservation system and unreserved ticketing system helps to solve the every day problems of the world biggest Indian Railway network. 5

ABOUT INFORMATION SYSTEMS USED IN RAILWAYS

CENTRE FOR RAILWAY INFORMATION SYSTEM (CRIS) CRIS designs, develops, implements and maintains large information systems for the Indian Railways. In addition, CRIS has developed, implemented, and maintained IT systems for other entities such as the Andaman and Nicobar administration (A & N Ship Ticketing system) as well. In recent years, the number of systems being handled by CRIS has grown rapidly. From the initial 3 projects, CRIS is presently handling over 10 large projects. Important Indian Railways IT projects being handled by CRIS 1. The computerization of the Freight Operation Information System of Indian Railways. FOIS enables management and control of freight movement, optimization of asset utilization, and generation of freight invoices ("Railway Receipts"). Many of IR's important freight customers can pay through the electronic payment gateway interfaced with FOIS.

2. Passenger Reservation System (PRS) - CONCERT. A countrywide online passenger reservation and ticketing system, developed and maintained by CRIS, is a complex online distributed client server application developed in C and FORTRAN on OVMS using RTR (Reliable Transaction Router) as middleware. CONCERT (Country-wide Network of Computerized Enhanced Reservation & Ticketing) interconnects the five regional computing systems at New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Secunderabad into a National PRS grid. It allows a passenger from any location to book train tickets from any station to any station. It handles reservations, modifications, and cancellations / refunds. It performs reservation for over 6

995,000 seats and berths (peak rush as high as 1,017,000) daily. It has complex rules, validations and fare computation techniques interwoven in the application.

3. The Internet based E-ticketing reservation system, whose frontend has been developed by IRCTC.

4. The computerization of the Unreserved Ticketing SystemUnreserved Ticketing System of Indian Railways. Unreserved ticketing constitutes a major component of the IRs overall ticketing volume and is an important source of revenue. UTS delivers fast and efficient unreserved ticketing from dedicated counters replacing manual Printed Card Tickets/EFTs/BPTs with centralised online sales accounting. The solution architecture lends itself to easy integration with handheld terminals, smart cards, automatic vending machines, etc.

5. National Train Enquiry System for latest train running timings.

6. Web Enabled Claims- The web-based software enables the general public to not only file claim cases through the web but also track the progress of their claims. All the rules and regulations for claims and accident case filing along with contact details of all claims offices are available on the website.

7. Rail Budget Compilation System (RBCS)- Developed for budgetary inputs from the different zones and production units of the Indian Railways, RBCS facilitates capturing of data, building of database, analysis of demands and pruning of the estimates for inclusion in the Railway Budget. 7

8. Vigilance Software System (VSS) - VSS is designed specially for the requirements of Vigilance on Indian Railways and has been implemented in all the Zonal Railway Headquarters. VSS maintains information on vigilance cases / complaints including various reports and correspondence.

9. Material Management Information System (MMIS)- This package is designed specifically for the requirements of stores accounting for P-Way materials and scrap disposal.

10. Comprehensive Accounting & Transaction System (CATS) -CATS has been designed with a common database to address functionalities for personnel and Finance Departments. CATS contains two major modules: Financial Accounting System (FAS) and Payroll System (PS).

11. Workshop Information System (WISE)- WISE is a MIS project for the the various railway workshops around the country. Currently it is in operation in 15 workshops, viz. Kharagpur, Jagadhari, Ajmer, Kota, Charbagh, Liluah, Kacharapara, Matunga, Lower Parel, Parel, Bhusawal, Jhansi, Secundrabad,Lallaguda, Jamalpur. WISE is currently maintained by the group Project-II and provides managerial reports to the various managements .The project utilizes the ORACLE DBMS.

12. Crew Management System (CMS)- Crew Management System is software which provides information regarding railway crew at all times. It provides information regarding the presence of crew at home station or at out station, maintains 8

their status-wise records and assigns crew to trains. It also maintains information regarding the periodic and other rests, Road Learning & Traction knowledge. The software systems gives SMS alerts to management and supervisors in case the crew levels falls below alarm level likely to effect the train operations. It is capable of booking crew on Coaching, Shunting, Freight services in the form of Links and Rosters. The software system has tools to support the safety monitoring of the crew by it nominated Inspectors, monitoring of the crew knowledge through Quiz and has capacities to make the crew read the latest safety circulars put into the system for reading by the crew.

13. Control Office Application(COA)- is a software which provides a solution for the rail traffic Controllers of each Division to manage the trains running over the track. This project is running in more than 30 of the 70 Control offices in the Indian Railways. The COA application is interfaced with other applications such as the National Train Enquiry System (NTES) to provide train running information to the passengers and other railway managers.

14. E-Procurement system provides a secure, fair, and transparent method of procurement of material by the Railways through a web-based interface. This system is presently in operation in a few units of IR, and is to be expanded in the near future to all units of IR.

FREIGHT OPERATIONS INFORMATION SYSTEM (FOIS)

Indian Railways have decided not only to perform the traditional tasks of carrying passengers and goods efficiently, but also to change the mindset of working in a closed system. There has been a longstanding 9

demand of the industry for transparency in sharing of information to give the customers an upto date businesslike environment. 1. Continuous cargo visibility has always been viewed as the most critical component of any physical distribution system. FOIS enables freight customers to have instant access to information regarding the current status of their consignments in transit, for just in time inventory. It is a system for management and control of freight movement that also assists managers to optimise asset utilisation. 2. FOIS comprises the Rake Management System (RMS) for handling the operating portion and Terminal Management System (TMS) pertaining to the commercial transactions. TMS has been installed at more than 300 locations and with the availability of infrastructure will cover all major handling points. As of June 2005, about 1500 reporting devices have been commissioned at more than 500 locations of Indian Railways. Railway owned digital microwave communication facilities complemented by channels hired from the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., (BSNL) have been used to establish the network. The network is continuously being expanded to meet the growing demand. FOIS has been designed to give strategic advantages to both Indian Railways and its customers. The implementation of the system is envisaged to eventually achieve the following:o

Extension of the current business practice of bulk movement in train load formation to piecemeal traffic to increase the market share by clubbing and moving together similar type of stock of "Hub & Spoke" arrangement. Global tracking of consignments in real time whether in rakes or in individual wagons. The insight and pipeline of consignments would be seamlessly available for timely planning and just in time inventory management. Facilitate acceptance of customer's orders, billing and cash accountal from identified nodal customer centres which, may not necessarily be the handling terminals. These facilities could

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even get extended to customer's premises and alongwith introduction of e-commerce benefit both by reducing the burden of logistics management. The system as implemented upto now performs the following functions:
o

Monitoring of all freight trains indicating their position in computerized teritory and their expected time of arrival at destination. Commodity wise flow of frieght trains for customers like Power Houses, Refineries, Feritlizers and Cement Plants, Steel Depots and Public Frieght Terminals enabling the recipients of consignments to have an accurate forecast of cargo arrivalsgiving them adequate time to complete preparatory arrangement to handle the cargo. Out bound loaded rakes from the computerized territory are also monitored in the same manner Full particulars of detachments from block rakes are recorded and updated eliminating chances of wagons getting unconnected or missing. 4.
o

Details of rakes/Wagons in various yards, their phase-wise detention in different terminals, eliminating the need for costly manual documentation and tedious retrieval systems and inaccuracies. Managerial reports regarding availability of rolling stock, i.e. wagons and locomotives at any instant of time to plan for their most efficient utilization. With the use of the system there has been a visible reduction in the anxiety levels mental stress and confusion amongst railway customers and its operating staff. The voluminous and repetitive exchange of data on telephones round the clock has now been reduced and is gradually being replaced by minimum data input. The improved work environment has significantly simplified planning and execution of assigned tasks. The system information is being used to club less than

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train load consignments from different loading stations. The words of appreciation from bulk customers who are being advised through e-mail the status of their consignments, is a clear indication that the anticipated benefits from FOIS have already begun to accrue to the customers. Interactive web based solutions to give customised reports to Railway Board, Zonal Railways and Divisions is in place 5. FOIS provides tremendous opportunities to both the Railways and their customers, to improve existing business practices and consequently reduce the operating costs while enhancing the quality of service. A full fledged Domestic Terminal Management System for CONCOR is already in place. 6. E-Payment of Freight: A pilot project has been implemented for electronic payment of freight for coal booked for Badarpur Power House from collieries on ECR. Originating point intimates electronically the freight charges due to the bank (SBI). After receipt of "Successful Transaction" message electronic confirmation from the bank of this transaction confirming the debit from BTPS account, RR is printed at the originating point. It is a synchronous transaction and reply is received within 150 seconds.

7. Future Approach: a. Design & Development of MIS, Data Ware House & Data Mining capabilities: Provision of MIS reports enabling trend analysis, statistical reports, Data Warehousing and thereby enabling Data mining activities are also envisaged in the future. b. WEB Enabled reports: It is contemplated to give web access to Railways customers for obtaining information regarding pipeline of their incoming outgoing rakes, details of Closed Circuit rakes and tracking of interplant movements transfers.

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E Working System (Electronic file Movement and Tracking)

Software profile
E - WORKING SYSTEM is a web-based application that provides for automation of the functions of all the departments / offices. It provides an effective electronic office management system that encompasses diverse business requirements like File Management, Document Management, and Knowledge Management. It provides a user-friendly intuitive interface for the users to accomplish the various tasks. Key Features For File Movement and Tracking
o

o o o o o o o o

Integration with a scanning solution for scanning of documents, adding remarks and filing into electronic files. Creation, Movement and Tracking of electronic files. Provision to add notings to file. Support for confidential documents. An inbox for each user containing his pending tasks. Alerts and Reminders for overdue tasks for a user. Secret Code protected critical functions like sanction etc. File Viewer and Document Viewer. Role based access to all the functionalities.

Interdepartmental Processes The system provides electronic form based processing for the following processes. All these processes interface with external systems like PRIME, AFRES and MMIS.
Leave on Average Pay - helps an employee request for leave on average pay and keep track of earned leave o Travel Allowance Bill - helps an employee request clearance of Travel allowance bills o Provident Fund advance - helps an employee request an advance on his provident fund. 13
o

Indent (Non Stock) - helps in generating a request for non-stock materials that are not available in sufficient quantity Tender Committee proceedings - helps in processing tender bid received in response to a tender floated.

Where Implemented E working system is currently being implemented at SECR Railways (Bilaspur). Target Users E working system is currently being implemented at SECR Railways (Bilaspur).

System Platform Hardware :

o

DB2 CM Server - Dual Processor Intel Xeon / AMD Opteron 246 or higher.8 GB RAM, 2 x 73.1 GB HDD with RAID 5 Lotus Domino Server - Dual Processor Intel Xeon / AMD Opteron 246 or higher, 4 GB RAM, 2 x 73.1 GB HDD with RAID

System Software :
o

Lotus Domino Enterprise server, DB2 Content Manager, Lotus Designer and Rational Suite for the managing Project documents and Source Code.

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Integrated Coaching Management System(ICMS)

Punctuality Module
In the first module of this project, the punctuality of trains has been addressed and is called as Punctuality Module. This module was implemented in Feb. 2004.This is running on PRS/NTES network and is on the same hardware of NTES. This module captures the delays involved in train running at interchange points and detention causes for the delays at the divisional level. Zonal client does the responsibility fixing. Based on this input reports are generated for traffic managers. Zonal client does the responsibility fixing. Based on this following types of reports are generated for traffic managers
o o o o o

o o o o o

Railway Punctuality Performance for a date for a Division Movement of Trains Division wise in a Zone Punctuality percentage of Mail/Express Cause wise/Gauge Wise breakup of Lost Trains between dates Division wise analysis of Cause of Lost Trains on Date in a Zone Railway Punctuality performance for a date in a Zone Cause wise breakup of Trains lost in a period Summary of Monitored trains daily Run and Lost Section wise/Cause wise analysis for all trains on a date Zone wise/Cause wise analysis for all trains on a date etc

This module will be migrated to the same platform on which Coaching Stock Module will reside to give user friendly browser based forms and reports. This module has been developed on the new platform and is under lab testing.

Coaching Stock Module

This is a web based application and will run on intranet (FOIS network). This module will capture all the events done on Coaches during operations (e.g. Attach/Detach/Sick Marking/Made Fit etc) to generate an on line position of Coaching Stock. As all locations are 15

networked and a centralized database is available, this will be a utility tool for traffic managers.
o

o o o o o

To monitor the condition and location, status and history of the coaching stock. To monitor the coaching rakes, their locations, arrival departure. To generate stock reports To find Coaches in Foreign Railways To plan special trains To provide data for planning and rescheduling of rakes. To optimize utilization of each coach and timely maintenance (POH) and repairs. For prompt planning for idle coaches and their timely bookings and usage to generate more revenue for the railways. Through mailing and messaging end users may communicate.

Ideally there will be no requirement of census to know the current stock position of Indian Railways once the above module is in data feeding mode at all the locations.

Coaching Maintenance Module

This module is in the stage of requirement analysis. The implementation will start by 1st March.2007.This module will capture the depot activities related to coaching maintenance operations, this will be a utility tool for mechanical managers to help them in planning of schedules. This will capture broadly following functionalities.
o o o o

Platform and enroute attention module Enroute rolling in and rolling out Brake Power Check, Train watering, Gang booking Washing line and sick line Placement Module including Pit line occupation status, placement advice, Rake fitness and withdrawal advice etc. Depot Maintenance activities including all types of component based maintenance. Material Management which will include Depot stores

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management, indent flow etc. Staff Module to include muster roll preparation, staff skill development etc. Functional modules for superior management(Divisional, Zonal and Railway Board)

This module will be having a tight integration with Coaching Stock Module and handshake will be done in various events.

Time Tabling Module

o

To maintain a centralized database for all trains of Indian Railways with following attributes. Train Definition, Validity period of the train definition, Days of Run, Train Profile, Train Schedule (List of stations with timings) etc. Giving facility to update the time table through browser based application by all zonal railways at the time of time tabling and providing soft copy for printing of IR Time table. Other than the above following will also be captured in the scope of Time tabling module.  Simulating the suitable timings for running of all kinds of trains.  Simulating the best available path for planning a train keeping in view all variables.

CONCERT
Country-wide Network for Computerized Enhanced Reservation and Ticketing - developed by CRIS, Chanakya Puri, New Delhi, is a total networking solution to Indian Railways Passenger Reservation System.

PRS on the web

-Passenger Reservation Systems Seat Availability / PNR / Journey Planner / Fare / Time Table enquiries and e-Reservation of tickets are

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availabl

i t

UTS ved Ti eti System It is a complete sol tion for t e total net orked unreserved ticketing to t e Indian Rail ays...... SEASON TICKETING PROJECT (STEAM - This soft are caters to the ticketing requirements of suburban trains at Mumbai (the lifeline of Mumbai . NTES/NTES on WEB National Train Enquiry System is a reliable centrali ed information system, which provides up-to-date and accurate information to the 18

passengers......

Compl int System This software is primarily meant for the Indian Railways to record and maintain the complaint/deficiency registered at station, division, zonal or at railway board level.

Passenger Coaching Refunds System - Computeri ation of passenger coaching refund Integrating ATM with reservation/enquiry system - A number of Banks in India shall be issuing Reserved and Unreserved Tickets 19

through their ATMs under an arrangement with zonal Railways....

Data Warehousing
A data warehouse can be directly used by decision-makers to do any kind of queries. It also provide fast output with historical perspective which helps them to do better decisions hence gain a competitive edge in Market, increase profits and provide better customer satisfaction. They do not have to depend on IT, hence it reduces IT cost..

Comprehensive Payroll Processing System for DLW Varanasi

Software profile
Payroll System is a comprehensive Bilingual package which generates monthly salary bills including payslips in Hindi. It takes input from different small sub-modules. The modules which it interacts with are as follows:
o o o o o o o o

Quarter Allotment Information sub Module Electricity Bill Generation sub Module Leave Accounting Module Incentive Bonus Calculation Module Income Tax Processing PF Account Maintenance Pension Calculation Module WGR & Labour Accounting Module

Where Implemented This software is being developed for Diesel Locomotive Works(DLW), Varansi. Target Users At present CPPS has been designed and developed for DLW/Varanasi. Since it is a comprehensive payroll system which include Incentive Bonus Calculation and Labour Accounting module also, this can easily be customized to be used by other production 20

units of Indian Railways also

System Platform Hardware :

o o

IBM RISC server (RS 6000 P170). Desktop PCs as Client with minimum memory of 64 MB

System Software :
o o o o o

Unix as OS on server. Windows 2000/ 98 on clients. Back end :- Oracle 8i. Front end :- Forms/Reports 6i. Leap Office for Hindi Font Support.

GIS
Optimization of using railway in each country is essential for political and economical development ,Because large amount of goods and passenger and commercial and economical exchange by railway. In each system essential assets like, construction, installation, machines, factories and so on, can cause growth and progress, so for accurate proper management and precise and updated information is necessary. After analyzing, recognition and primitive design, one of the important things for GIS Implementation is data acquisition. Collecting and organizing data in digital format is necessary for creating GIS in each system. Spatial data acquisition, storing and organizing them can be done by different methods and have important role in the GIS activities.

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Available information in railway industry such as, plane and profile of track, stations, features (objects) in the buffer of rail track, geometric information (Superelevation, Curve, slope, ) technical construction (Tunnel, Bridge, Drainage, Territory walls, Buildings , ), train and wagon have spatial attribute characteristics that can be organized by GIS. In this article we introduce a method that work by integrating of GPS and Multimedia system. This can be used as a tested and successf ul method by different organization. Data Acquisition And Information Management In GIS There are different methods for data acquisition from field, Using Traditional or digital maps, satellite images, Global positioning system(GPS), each of this methods have advantages and disadvantages. for example preparing digital railroad map by digitizing the paper of them can make overshoot or undershoot mistake, in addition this map are old and should be updated .

Figure1 :Methods of spatial and attribute information input in GIS

Although satellite Images can cover the information of large amount of ground, using satellite images with fit spatial resolution need high 22

charge and creating relation between image and ground is time consuming. Therefore , using GPS and computer with fast process rate is suitable [1], but selecting a fast and accurate way that reduces cost, need a special process. In this research a program was written in Visual Basic language, which have relation with a database in SQL Server and can get information of eight GPS with eight external ports. By this method we can collect spatial data from the field quickly (figure2).

Figure2: Designed Software for collecting data by GPS

Data Collection for Railway GIS In the world Some countries like England and Japan have been using the integration of multimedia and GPS method for data collection in their railway.

Omnicom System In England This system can make information of track and can be used to evaluate the failure of track by integration of film and GPS. this system can make a report of failure of track (Figure 3).
A new and innovated track inspection system solves the problem of 23

walking the track without risk on high speed lines under new safety roles and provides maintenance people with a configuration of data and images that is clear and accurate[6,9].

Figure3: Data Collection of England Railway

Railway Video GIS System In Japan Integrated system of GPS and Multimedia can be used for data collection and maintenance of railway. This system can get the position of train and other information of railway, preparing the film of track and a report of nearest object, achieving the information like map and photograph are the abilities of this system [7].
Designing and Implementing System For Spatial and Attribute Data Acquisition (DGSRAIL) Because of successful experience in implementation of Gps and Multimedia integration to collect spatial and attribute data that are essential for Irans railway network, after primitive researches, recognition, analyzing and doing a pilot project, the system for collecting data of Iran railway was designed and tested in railway company for first time. having tables, maps, films ,pictures and text definition of each features are the capabilities of this system. It works in intranet of railway company and can integrate the GPS information with multimedia of rail track. In spite of the limitation in preparing hardwares, this system have a user friendly software, visual 24

analyzing and editing of spatial and attribute information are the other capabilities of this system.

Introduction of System In this system we used four digital cameras and GPS to integrate the information of GPS and film. Designed software can get the spatial information and join them to the film. In this system we match the time of GPS and film. After preparing the film of rail track, we get the information of railway objects (Spatial and attribute information) from film, By designed software. The recognition and analyzing of system that make railway information from multimedia have been done in three stages. The first and second stages have been done completely, but the third stage is incomplete.
In the first stage an operational team has done evaluation of a pilot project to achieve a better recognition on main project. Analyzing the required time, cost and accuracy and the willingness of GIS in company are the aim that have been achieved in pilot project. In second step the hardware and software of system was developed .In recent system there is capability to observe the profile of track and the rate of kilometers that have been taken. In developed system we can see the film and table of spatial and attribute information of railway features at the same time. Collecting information of the track have been done by four digital cameras (three analog camera used in pilot project) [2] (figure4). In the third stage a user interface was designed and the information form of features were completed systematically, and spatial and attribute information of railway features were stored in a Geodatabase. The capability of producing the geometric information of track in the film is a goal of near future.

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Figure4:Installation of digital camera on Derezin (trolley)

DGSRAIL System Ability The most important capability of this system are: I)Collection of Spatial Information by GPS: For collecting spatial information from railway network by GPS, the program have been designed and Implemented that can get information from GPS continuously. this information will change to special format and finally was stored in a database. For navigating and displaying of data a digital map (1:25000,1:1000000) which have the information about roads, cities , province of Iran was used [3].

Figure5:Finding the coordinate of system by time II)Integration of the GPS Data and Multimedia: 26

For integrating the spatial data of GPS and multimedia a program was designed. In this program the time of GPS and film are match together and the positioning of railway feature on the film have been done by the matching of film and GPS (figure5). III)Inputting The Attribute Information Of Features: In this system entering of data has been done automatically. The picture of the features has been prepared from the film and was stored in database (figure6). IV)A Place for Displaying Maps and Attribute Table (user interface): Because of the variety of application of GIS, different user interfaces have been developed that help to respond the problem. Therefore, a user interface has been designed for Railway GIS application. This system has ability to make dynamic report of the situation of railway feature and to show the spatial situation and attribute information of features and to get information from a database.(figure6)

Figure6:Data Input and introduction of feature type to DGSRAIL V)Ability to Join the System with AVI : Navigation of automatic vehicle need a map to be shown, therefore, this system need to have graphic maps which in that, train can be identified to conclude to some analysis the result of AVI/TAG system can be joined. List of some railway features that have been collected from 1596 kilometers of railway have been mentioned in Table 1. Stored information is about 700 GIGA Byte which have consisted of films, pictures and tables. 27

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

From these conclusions a number of possible courses of action may be identified. The following recommendations are offered as guidelines for consideration and possible application by the railway managements of the region in dealing effectively with their level crossing problems: (i) The railway managements of the region should re-evaluate their approach to monitoring level crossing safety and to setting priorities for implementing safety enhancement measures for level crossings on their respective systems. In particular, they should give careful consideration to introducing effective Safety Management Systems along the lines of the model system (ii) Wherever justified by the combined density of road and rail traffic, the railway systems of the region should give first priority to the grade separation of their level crossings. While grade separation is undeniably the most effective means of enhancing level crossing safety, the cost of constructing road under or over-passes is very high and often beyond the financial means of some of the railways of the region. Choice of this solution must therefore be influenced strongly by a realistic assessment of the combined density of the road and rail traffic likely to use current road/rail intersections. (iii) Desirably, all railway systems of the region should carry out regular safety audits and risk assessments for all of their level crossing installations. Use of a Safety Management Information System supplemented by application of risk evaluation techniques along the lines of those described in Chapter 4 will improve the capability of railway managements to identify and prioritise level crossing safety enhancement measures. (iv) Railway managements should take action either to close, or to 28

provide effective protection for, all unofficial level crossings on their systems. In the case of some railway systems of the region (notably that of Viet Nam) substantial improvement of level crossing safety will simply not be possible unless the unofficial crossing problem is addressed effectively. (v) Rather than committing scarce capital funds for the acquisition of sophisticated automatic systems of level crossing protection, railway managements should adopt a policy of manning currently unprotected crossings and equipping them with inexpensive locally manufactured barrier and warning systems wherever this is indicated by assessments of traffic density and/or adverse physical factors at specific crossings. While labour costs are still inexpensive in most countries of the region, manually operated level crossing barriers and warning systems (perhaps complemented by electrical activation mechanisms) provide the most cost effective method of providing a maximum level of safety at all but the most densely trafficked crossings, which in any event would normally qualify for grade separation. Alternative automatic protection systems (especially the half-barrier systems widely used in Europe) do not have a particularly good record of safe operation and, in the absence of crossing protection staff, require the installation of expensive crossing obstruction detectors in order to guarantee minimum levels of safety. (vi) Railway managements should actively seek funding assistance for level crossing improvements or grade separation from road authorities. There is a particularly strong argument for such an approach when road traffic is shown to be growing at a faster rate than rail traffic. (vii) Railway managements should be prepared to develop carefully targeted campaigns directed at the education of level crossing users and to ensure that adequate priority is attached to the funding of these campaigns. 29

Particularly as disposable incomes and motorization levels are increasing throughout the region, the railways of the region should intensify their efforts to improve level crossing safety awareness throughout the communities they serve. While wide use should be made of the mass media (newspapers and television), note should be taken of simpler, but effective, methods of delivering public education programmes. In India, the use of punjayat, or local village council, offices as a vehicle for disseminating level crossing safety information appears to have proven effective and is recommended as a model for adoption by other railways of the region.

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