What would you suggest should be possible solutions to the problems mentioned above?
Ankit, Abhishek, Rakesh and Saurabh and I- All five of us discussed the issue with some possibly pragmatic soultions. Following is the un-edited version of the chat we did via gmail:
I feel lack of civic sense in metro travelers is a major cause of "roller coaster" ride (as rightly pointed by Rahul) and a possible solution is "education". If people can be educated to stand in queues on Rajiv Chowk underground line, even if it took couple of men with a rod in hand, then few lessons on metro travel etiquette can definitely help.
-Ankit Goel
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Ankit,
I agree 100% with you on this.. We can't blame police and government every time.
Consider this: The situation is just next to "stampede" at the peak hours. What will 5 or 10 policemen do in this situation?
Though I think increasing the coaches in a train to almost double may help to certain extent but it will also be saturated after some months or so. However, that will require expansion of all the existing stations as currently they are designed to handle only a certain length of train. This will require some investment from DMRC but I think it will be worth it.
-Rahul Aggarwal
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Ankit and Rahul,
Both of you have highlighted the very key concerns regarding the issue. Kudos! Adding to your viewpoints, I would like to suggest to the DMRC, the following inputs:
1. First of all there should be a separate compartment for ladies because women suffer a lot in these kinds of situations and they are literally sandwiched between men while commuting.
2. The crowd can be managed and it's just a matter of strong will and strict governance.
Solution: How the crowd can be managed:
We can have load sensors in the metro compartments beyond which a signal with sound and light is flashed indicating that no more people can be accommodated like we have in lifts. In this way the person entering last has to move out.
Also, to maintain this there should be at least one or two guards at each and every station so that a queue is maintained and if a guy/gal is not able to make it to the last train, he is assured that he will be the first one to enter in the next train.
3. The frequency should be increased but the destination of trains should also be altered.
Like every train should not start from station A, some should start from station B, some from C depending upon the statistics we can manage the crowd.
4. In few of the compartments we can remove the whole seating arrangement. In this manner we can increase the capacity. For a short journey there is no need of making people seated. Metro is a comfortable journey and we should bear the standing arrangement for the betterment of this particular commuting system.
5. Last but not the least, people should be charged for the size of their luggage. In this manner we can minimize the size of the luggage creating more space.
-Rakesh Thakur
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Having read all of your comments it makes little sense for me to enter the discussion at this point, but still I would like to compliment you guys for some noteworthy suggestions. I though have a few of my own to add to this list. They are:
1. Instead of load sensors, the metro should have a maximum capacity of people that can enter as opposed to all that can fit currently. For this guards are needed to be placed at every gate on the metro. This means 2 guards per door for 16 doors. But this need not be for all stations. It should be maintained on only those stations that experience heavy volumes during the day. The metro can have a counter running telling you how many people can enter the train at a particular station, streamlining the process.
2. We can't eliminate seating arrangement as elderly, physically disabled people would need seats.
-Saurabh Gupta
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To me the only solution looks like, educating the people or may be having a public grievance cell which redresses the grievances urgently. Something like, a fasttrack investigation in case of pick pockets. Other culture that might help is "the queue culture", this culture can be seen in abundance in Kolkata ( though not on metro stations!) but this brings about some discipline in people which can be witnessed when u travel in the metro rail in Kolkata.
-Abhishek LNU
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I have sent important points from this chat to DMRC complaints/suggestions and to a leading daily. Hope, some concerned authorities do take a note of this and act accordingly. Feel free to comment and give suggestions.
