Chennai Suburban Railway

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Chennai Suburban Railway
LocaleChennai metropolitan area, Tamil Nadu, India
Transit typeSuburban Rail
Number of lines8 routes, all with 4 tracks
Line numberChennai Beach - Gummidipoondi
Chennai Beach - Velachery (MRTS line)
Chennai Beach - Tambaram
Chennai Beach - Chengalpattu Junction
Chennai Beach - Arakkonam Junction (via Tambaram, Chengalpattu , Kanchipuram, Tirumalpur)
Chennai Beach - Arakkonam Junction (via avadi , Tiruvallur)
Chennai Central - Tiruttani
Chennai Central - Arakkonam junction
Chennai Central - Tiruvallur
Chennai Central - Avadi
Chennai Central - Pattabiram E depot
Chennai Central - Gummidipoondi
Chennai Central - Sullurpeta
Velacherry - Avadi
Velacherry - Tiruvallur

UNUSUAL RARE ROUTES Chennai Beach - Chennai Central

Chennai Beach - Sullurpetta
Chennai Beach - Pallavaram
Chennai Beach - Tirumalpur
Chennai Beach - Kanchipuram

Chennai Beach - Tiruttani
Chennai Central - Kadambathur
Chennai Central - Pattabiram
Chennai Central - Tirunindravur
Chennai Central - Ennore
Ennore - Tiruvallur
Tiruvallur - Ponneri - Tiruvallur
Chengalpattu Junction - Tambaram
Chengalpattu Junction - Gummidipoondi
Tambaram - Gummidipoondi
Velacherry - Ponneri
Velacherry - Gummidipoondi
Velacherry - Sullurpeta
velachery - Tiruttani
Velachery - Pattabiram E depot
Velachery - Arakkonam Junction
Kadambathur - velachery
Puducherry - Tirupati
Chennai Beach - Chennai Beach Circular Local.
Number of stations300+
Daily ridership2.5 million
Annual ridership912.57 million/year (2018–2019)[1]
Websitehttps://sr.indianrailways.gov.in
Operation
Began operation1931; 93 years ago (1931)
Operator(s)Southern Railway zone
CharacterAt-grade, Elevated
Train length12/9 coaches
Technical
System length
  • 1,211.81 km (752.98 mi) (unique)
  • 509.71 km (316.72 mi) true suburban
  • 702.1 km (436.3 mi) MEMU service
Track gauge5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) Indian gauge
Electrification25 kV 50 Hz AC overhead catenary
Average speed50 km/h (31 mph)
Top speed100 km/h (62 mph)
System map

The Chennai Suburban Railway is a commuter rail system in the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, operated by the Southern Railways branch of Indian Railways. It is the second largest suburban rail network in terms of route length and the third largest in terms of commuters in India. Around 1,000 services are operated daily between 4:00 a.m. and midnight. It is the longest suburban circular route in India covering of 235.5 km (146.3 mi).

Chennai has a complex railway network. It is the third busiest suburban rail system in India after

MRTS section.[2] This is a 13.2 percent increase over the previous year. A total of 65 stations in the suburban section have bicycle stands.[3]

History

Chennai Central Railway Station, one of the prime destinations of the Chennai Suburban Railway system
A Suburban train arrives at Mambalam Railway Station.

Chennai has a fairly extensive suburban

Sir George Fredrick Stanley, the then governor of Madras, who at the opening ceremony was reported to have said that the new train services would transform "desolate south Madras into burgeoning garden cities".[5]

However, the suburban services were opened to the public only a month later on 11 May 1931.[4] The section was electrified on 15 November 1931, with the first MG EMU services running on 1.5 kV DC.[4] The Madras Electricity Supply Corporation, which powered the railway lines, was aided by sub-stations in Egmore and Meenambakkam. Soon, the number of trains shuttling passengers was increased to 45 a day, running every 10 minutes at peak hours, and every 30 minutes, otherwise. The running time between Madras Beach and Tambaram stations, which was 2 hours until then, was reduced to 49 minutes. The train service was made available from 4:00 in the morning up to 12:00 at night.[5]

In the same year, mainline DC locomotives (YCG) were introduced to haul freight from the port.

broad-gauge (BG) EMUs running.[7]

In the 1960s, the line from Madras Beach to

Villupuram was converted to 25 kV AC traction.[6] This began with the conversion of the Madras Beach–Tambaram section on 15 January 1967.[8] The rolling stock was changed to EMUs with motors and electricals from Toshiba or Hitachi. These were built by the Integral Coach Factory based in the city. Services too were extended to Chengleput with two daily services. In the late 1967, a Toshiba/Hitachi/Mitsubishi combine model YAM-1 21904 locomotive was introduced, which became the first MG 25 kV AC locomotive. Work on additional MG track between Tambaram and Chengleput began in 1969 and was completed in January 1971.[6]

In 1986 or 1987, suburban services to northern and western parts of the city began from the newly built Moore market terminal exclusively built for suburban services, which were earlier operating from the central station terminal (First BG Suburban Services in Chennai). With the growth in suburban traffic and the existing gauge lacking sufficient carrying capacity, the Indian Railway decided to convert the entire section between Beach and Tambaram, which by then had three MG lines, to BG in early 1991, with a 50:50 joint venture with the state government. The first BG line was laid in the section in 1992 parallel to the existing MG lines. The work was completed in February 1993. Of the three existing MG lines, two were exclusively used for suburban service and the third one was used for mainline express and passenger trains. The newly laid BG line started handling suburban trains supplementing the MG suburban lines.[6]

In 1998, further to the Chengleput–Villupuram–Tiruchirapalli gauge conversion project, the railway decided to convert one of the MG lines in the section between Tambaram and Chengleput. However, the decision was soon changed due to large-scale protests by suburban commuters. This resulted in the conversion of the 'down' MG line (the easternmost line out of Tambaram) to BG, in addition to laying of a new parallel MG line. Within a year, work on the new BG was completed. By late 1999, there were two MG lines and one BG line between Tambaram and Chengleput, and the new BG line was electrified by late 2000.[6] The conversion of the mainline MG line between Egmore and Tambaram began in 2000, resulting in Tambaram station temporarily acting as terminal point for mainline express and passenger trains originally originating from and terminating at Egmore. This resulted in increase in traffic at Tambaram station, where two additional MG lines were built. In March 2001, the gauge conversion project in the Madras–Madurai section was completed and BG passenger services began, and the Beach–Tambaram section featured two MG and two BG lines. In December 2001, electrification work of the Chengleput–Villupuram BG line commenced. Gauge conversion work of two MG lines between Beach and Egmore began in December 2002 and was completed by February 2003. This resulted in increased BG EMU services between Beach and Tambaram and the MG services from Tambaram terminating at Egmore. The spur MG lines in the Beach–Washermanpet section were dismantled.[6]

In February 2003, one of the MG lines between Tambaram and Chengalpet was taken up for conversion and was completed in December 2003, which was used for BG EMU services and by mainline express trains. This resulted in 2 BG lines and 1 MG line in the Tambaram–Chengleput section by the end of 2003. The last MG EMU services between the 30-kilometre (19 mi) Egmore–Tambaram section were run on 1 July 2004, marking the end of the regular service of the YAM-1 locomotives, and the gauge conversion work in this section began. All MG mainline trains were switched over to diesel traction.[6]

On 1 November 2004, with the completion of the gauge-conversion work in this section, BG EMU services were inaugurated in the Beach-Chengalpattu Section with the addition of 15 new rakes from ICF.[6]

In September 2020, the conversion of the third meter-gauge line between Singaperumal Koil and Guduvancherry on the Tambaram–Chengalpattu stretch to broad gauge was completed and opened for traffic.[citation needed]

In February 2021, with the opening of 4 lines between

Chennai Beach and Attipattu at a cost of 2.9 billion, all the eight routes in the Chennai section have 4 lines each.[9]

Lines

Heat-map of the coverage of public transportation in Chennai City

Fundamentally, Chennai has four suburban railway lines, namely, North line, West line, South line and the

MRTS is a suburban railway line that chiefly runs on an elevated track exclusively used for running local EMUs
or suburban local trains. No express trains or passenger trains run on MRTS line.

North Line

This line runs from the city towards the North direction and hence the name.

Chennai city region Stations:Chennai Beach- Royapuram - Washermenpet-

.

Outside City regions stations

Tada (Andhra Pradesh) - Akkamapet – Sullurpeta

Few train services originate from

Korukkupet
. From Korukkupet the route is same as listed above.

  • Total length of North Line Suburban Services is 83 kilometres (52 miles) (Chennai Central to Sulurpetta)[11]
  • Suburban EMU services terminate at Sullurpeta (AP)
  • MEMU service is up to Nellore
  • Currently 83 train services run on the North Suburban line, whose split up is as follows[12]
    • 37 services begin from Chennai Central towards Northern suburbs, while another 37 services originate from the Northern suburbs proceeding to Chennai Central
    • Only 5 train services are run from Chennai Beach towards Northern suburbs, and there are 7 services in the return direction towards Chennai Beach
  • This is the only route in India where a suburban train is operated outside the state.

South Line