Metro to run at 40 km per hour on underground section
Last Updated IST
The speed of the trains will be restricted to follow safety standards. dh file photo
Namma Metro trains will be restricted to run at a speed of 38-40 km per hour in the underground section to maintain safety standards of the train and the safety of passengers as well.
The trains are not running beyond 38-40 km per hour even on the elevated sections to maintain safety standards. The safe speed has taken into account international speeds of metro trains in a wide variety of cities, including New York and Beijing.
The major reason why the speeds have been limited is that the trains require space and time to accelerate and decelerate. Metro officials explained that acceleration and deceleration require more than 400 metres each to pick up speed or to come to a halt. This amounts to almost half a kilometre.
“By the time the train attains a fairly good speed, it would have already reached the halfway point to another station. And then the train will be left with just 600 metres before it reaches the station ahead, when it has to begin to slow down. The same is the case with deceleration. The train would have to slow down gradually from a distance of 400 metres leaving it very little space to run speedily right up to the station,” a senior Metro official said.
Moreover, the distance between each station is just 1 km. If the distance had been one and a half km or 2 km, then the maximum speed of 80 km an hour could have been maintained. With 1,000 metres being the distance between two stations now, there is very little time left to speed up or slow down rapidly. So, it has been decided to keep to 38-40 km per hour. At this speed, the trains run into the station fairly comfortably.
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Other metros too would be running at an average of 40 km per hour, according to officials. “Like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi metros, too, would run on an average of 40 km per hour.
The structures they have built and the areas in which they go make that a comfortable speed. More or less, all the metros in the country are built on a similar basis though there may be differences in terms of topography, which also influences the speed you can maintain between the metro stations,” the officials said.
The topography of Bengaluru is rocky and uneven with the underground areas going up and down. The unevenness has been a major reason why the underground section has been taking time.
Finally, the distance between Mantri Square and Majestic inter-change has been covered by the underground machine Godavari, making possible the inauguration of the underground section on April 29.
The trains are not running beyond 38-40 km per hour even on the elevated sections to maintain safety standards. The safe speed has taken into account international speeds of metro trains in a wide variety of cities, including New York and Beijing.
The major reason why the speeds have been limited is that the trains require space and time to accelerate and decelerate. Metro officials explained that acceleration and deceleration require more than 400 metres each to pick up speed or to come to a halt. This amounts to almost half a kilometre.
“By the time the train attains a fairly good speed, it would have already reached the halfway point to another station. And then the train will be left with just 600 metres before it reaches the station ahead, when it has to begin to slow down. The same is the case with deceleration. The train would have to slow down gradually from a distance of 400 metres leaving it very little space to run speedily right up to the station,” a senior Metro official said.
Moreover, the distance between each station is just 1 km. If the distance had been one and a half km or 2 km, then the maximum speed of 80 km an hour could have been maintained. With 1,000 metres being the distance between two stations now, there is very little time left to speed up or slow down rapidly. So, it has been decided to keep to 38-40 km per hour. At this speed, the trains run into the station fairly comfortably.
"
Other metros too would be running at an average of 40 km per hour, according to officials. “Like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi metros, too, would run on an average of 40 km per hour.
The structures they have built and the areas in which they go make that a comfortable speed. More or less, all the metros in the country are built on a similar basis though there may be differences in terms of topography, which also influences the speed you can maintain between the metro stations,” the officials said.
The topography of Bengaluru is rocky and uneven with the underground areas going up and down. The unevenness has been a major reason why the underground section has been taking time.
Finally, the distance between Mantri Square and Majestic inter-change has been covered by the underground machine Godavari, making possible the inauguration of the underground section on April 29.