Escalator monitoring systems to improve operational efficiency at stations

The Mumbai division of Central Railway has set up an alert monitoring system with CCTVs to improve the operational efficiency of escalators at railway stations. The system will display a red signal and voice alert when an escalator stops functioning. It aims to mitigate the issue of non-functional escalators caused by miscreants pressing the emergency stop button. The system will also generate warnings for scheduled maintenance.

Mumbai: Frequent failures on escalators at railway stations have led the Mumbai division of Central Railway (CR) to set up an alert monitoring system along with CCTVs to improve operational efficiency and passenger experience.

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The monitoring systems will display a red signal and voice alert when the escalator stops functioning on any platform at railway stations.

“We have stopped maintaining data on the failures of escalators installed at railway stations. To mitigate the issue of non-functional escalators that mainly happens because miscreants press the emergency ‘stop’ button. On August 22 a web and mobile-based monitoring system for escalators was started,” said Shivraj Manaspure, chief public relations officer (PRO), CR.

There are 118 escalators installed on the suburban railway stations of the main, harbour and trans-harbour lines of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus - Karjat/Kasara/Panvel routes. According to CR sources, they have data loggers that keep minute-to-minute tabs on the working of all escalators.

“There are at least 50,000 cases of complaints each month of escalators malfunctioning or stopping in between. There have been times when the number of complaints rises during the holiday season,” said CR officials.

Usually, escalators stall abruptly after miscreants push the emergency button, in addition to technical faults. At times, porters deliberately stop the escalators to prevent long-distance train passengers from using them as it hurts their earnings. These escalators remain shut for an average of 15-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in the new system, which was inaugurated by general manager Naresh Lalwani of Central Railway on August 22, the escalators can be monitored in real-time by the controller sitting in the control room. Audio as well as visual alarms have been provided to alert the controller about any non-functional escalators.

Sources said these escalators can be restarted sitting in the control room but they will not use this system to avoid any untoward incident of passengers tripping while ascending or descending. The escalators are shown as per their geographical location and they blink with green or red colour as per their working and non-working status. Further, the system will also generate warnings if the escalator is overdue for scheduled maintenance.