This story is from August 20, 2019

Kolkata: Metro ready for seven-day practice run between Sector V and Salt Lake stadium

For seven days starting sometime this week, booking counters at all stations of the East-West Metro corridor from Sector-V to Salt Lake Stadium will open and trains will run for four hours. Ahead of the formal inauguration of phase-I, Metro will carry out a simulated operational trial.
Kolkata: Metro ready for seven-day practice run between Sector V and Salt Lake stadium
One of the first trials of E-W metro in Salt Lake a while back
KOLKATA: For seven days starting sometime this week, booking counters at all stations of the East-West Metro corridor from Sector-V to Salt Lake Stadium will open and trains will run for four hours. Ahead of the formal inauguration of phase-I, Metro will carry out a simulated operational trial.
“Before taking over operations of the nearly 5.7km stretch, we want a seven-day trial.
These trials will be held for four hours every day. We shall be observing all protocols from shed-out, when the rakes are brought out of the carshed and placed on the running line or the platform, to the time they reach their destination. All six stations — Sector-V, Karunamoyee, Central Park, City Centre, Bengal Chemical and Salt Lake Stadium — will be fully operational. Our motormen, controllers and booking staff have been trained and will work as if operations have started,” said Metro Railway CPRO Indrani Banerjee.
Booking staff will issue tokens or smart cards to ‘passengers’ — Metro employees — who will then walk to the trains and begin their journeys. Every movement will be timed. A timetable is being prepared, which has to be adhered to. Metro plans to use three rakes for the trials every day. A ride from Sector-V to Salt Lake Stadium normally takes 16-17 minutes, but Metro will take about 20 minutes to complete the trip during the trials as observations have to be recorded.
“Those in charge of signals, communications and power distribution will be on standby for trouble shooting. So will technicians and staff from the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Till now, there was a hand-holding arrangement between our staff and the OEM technicians. But during the trials, Metro staff will be operating independently. The E-W Metro is using a new and advanced technology and our staff are not very conversant with it. The main purpose of the trials is for them to gain confidence,” Banerjee added.
All train operations will be monitored — from their acceleration to the braking systems — under different conditions. It will also be checked how the emergency brakes work. Though the E-W Metro is capable of automatic train operations (ATO), which leave nothing but the opening and closing of doors to the motormen, the automatic train protection (ATP) system will be used during the trials. In this system, the motormen have a greater role to play in operations. Whether the ATO will be used during actual operations will depend on several factors.
Nearly 90 Metro Railway employees are now working on the E-W corridor.
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