DEFINE SWOT, STATE THE ACRONYM <<Swot is of suburban railways and of the IRCTC for the reason that

Bombay is one of the four metros with the IRCTC office>> SWOT

STRENGTHS
Indian Railways has been serving the people of India for over 150 years Relative benefits RAILWAYS ARE THE MOST ECOMICAL MODE OF TRANSPORT For short distances railways are the most time efficient mode of transport whereas for the long distance and bulk sector it is the comparatively safest mode of transport. Employment Not only this, Indian Railways is known to be the second largest commercial or utility employer in the world with more than 1.6 million employees. Focus for minorities We have seen introduction of special compartments for the women and the physically challenged. Similarly, 'ladies special' trains, which are operated during the peak hours, are a boon to the working ladies. There was even a temporary scheme of providing reserved seats for the Senior Citizens is not as successful as one would like it to be. Continuous improvement(bullet)
1. Tickets

From the long serpentine queues for cardboard tickets to the introduction of Coupons, which can be purchased in advance, and can be validated at Coupon Validation Machines to the array of computerized ticketing such as smart card (AVTM)

2. Indicators

From the manually operated clock-face with hands to the electronic indicators, which offer large and clearer display, thus improving visibility even from a long distance. The use of these Electronic Display Boards has made it possible to display the information

simultaneously at multiple locations - station entrance, overbridge, and platforms, and to control/ change the information remotely.

3. Connectivity In the last few years, a whole lot of new foot overbridges and sky walks been added to the suburban stations. To cater to the needs of the ever-increasing populace, the railways have also gradually introduced several new originating stations. 4. Public Announcement The Public address system throughout the network has been immensely improved. Each station can now broadcast its own announcements, or announcements originating from the Central Announcement System. The Central Announcement System has been very useful whenever there is an inordinate delay or disruption of services. It has also been widely used to page for people who get separated from their near and dear ones, or when any emergency information is to be relayed to anyone. 5. Lighting Another aspect of improvement in passenger convenience has been the total changeover to tube-lights in the coaches, as against the incandescent bulbs used earlier. This has definitely helped the coach look brighter and cleaner, and has been of great help to those who choose to read or work during the journey.

Passenger and Employee safety(just one line) Hospital Information Management System is being started in Jagjivan Ram Hospital, Western Railway, Mumbai as a pilot project and will be extended to all the hospitals of Indian Railways. . To provide medical facilities to retired railway employees membership for Retired Employees Liberalized Health Scheme-97 has been reopened till 31.03.2010 for those retired employees who could not join this scheme earlier. Suburban Mumbai railways have progressively provided window grills on all the rakes for the safety of the passengers. Similarly, many trains have been provided with speakers in passenger compartments

Capacity(just one line)

The Bombay system carries more than 6.9 million commuters on a daily basis and constitutes more than half of the total daily passenger capacity of the Indian Railways itself Both Central and Western railways have over 1000 services daily, and these, together, handle an estimated 6.3 million commuters, daily. This number is more than the entire population of some countries such as Finland, Norway, New Zealand ; or the combined population of Singapore & Mauritius.Western railway, for instance, has a train arriving into Churchgate at a mind-boggling interval of just 90 seconds or so, during the morning peak-hours. Technology(just one line) With this kind of frequency, and the spacing between the trains as is seen on this network, an automatic signalling system was undoubtedly a must. To make it better and reliable, the communication backbone now uses an Optic Fiber Cable (OFC). The OFC ensures that a large amount of data can be carried without distortion, and with great speed. It has also helped save precious metal (copper), used previously for communication cables. For the speed control of traction motors, chopper-control has been developed jointly with BARC. This technology uses power semiconductors instead of the conventional contactor and resistor method, and offers smooth, step-less control, apart from reducing the maintenance needs. The Central Railway is using several such chopper-control rakes. A giant leap is being planned by way of changeover of the overhead traction system from the present 1,500 Volts DC to 25,000 Volts AC. Today, the former voltage is present only in the Bombay area, while the rest of the country uses the later. This changeover will involve dualvoltage locals. The first of such locals has already started service on Western railway. For greater operational efficiency and safety, motorman-guard communication is also being planned on the suburban trains.

Environmentnot required The Ministry of Railways has achieved another milestone when three of its Zonal Railways bagged four of the National Energy Conservation Awards in 2009. In Railway sector, Western Railway headquartered at Mumbai (Maharashtra) bagged the first prize, In Office Building sector, West Central Railway again bagged the first prize for its General Manager Office Building.The MRVC environmental resources board has identified a few kew issues of environmental concern, for which soulutions and a Generic Environmental Management Plan for construction of new TSS, SP, SSP and Stabling Lines has been developed which covers under its purview Vehicular Emissions Fugitive Dust Emissions

On-Site Water Discharges Elevated Noise Levels Storage & Disposal of on-site waste/construction debris Storage of Diesel, oil and other chemicals Traffic Management Personal Injury

Inventory not required The total area of Mumbai is 603.4 km2 (233 sq mi) of this the suburban railways are spread over 464 route kilometres, with nearly 125 stations and 3 lines. Mumbai suburban rail has the highest passenger density in the World, ahead of even Tokyo and Seoul. Almost half of the total daily passengers using the entire Indian Railway System are from Mumbai Suburban Railway system alone Website one line or 2 Making tickets available at their doorsteps is a valuable service for our customers. We are also planning more value-added services to be announced shortly J Vinayan, deputy general manager (operations), IRCTC have received numerous compliments from satisfied customers across the globe. More than 100 foreign tourists use our services every week, accepting delivery of tickets at hotels and addresses of their choice in India or IRCTC's offices in the 4 metros. The traffic to the site has grown rapidly. "From daily average sales of about 115 tickets in August 2002, the site today books and prints over 2000 tickets daily and dispatches them to 50 cities in India," shares Vinayan. The daily turnover of the site is over Rs 40 lakh, which makes it the fastest growing credit card based e-commerce transactor in the Asia Pacific, with over 2000% growth in just ten months of operations.

WEAKNESSES all points not more than twolines

Defaulters For instance, almost 14 million of the 15 million people whom the Railways transports every day travel on unreserved tickets. Handling them has been a huge problem. As union railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said in his maiden Railway Budget speech at the Lok Sabha in 2004-05,

About 92 percent of railway passengers travel without reservation in unreserved coaches in trains in the country. << insert stats of our survey>> The website MindTree Consulting has conducted a usability review of the system. He makes a few suggestions: "The site asks you to register even to search for a train. If enquiry and reservations is the primary purpose of the site, the same should be available on the homepage itself. It does not suggest alternatives. For example, if I do not find a train to Mumbai [ Images ], the site should suggest another train that passes through Kalyan (a neighbouring station) and then a connection from Kalyan to Mumbai." Black Market of agents and poor performance of IRCTC website between 8-8.20 a.m.Till the time website becomes active, all the tickets are already booked. Hence it is very difficult to book tickets nomally or using Tatkal service. But all the tickets are avaliable through agents at premium price ranging from 50% to 200% above cost price. Sometimes even after booking via agents duplication of tickets is happening

Sanitation and maintenance Safety Although accidents such as derailment and collisions are less common in recent times, many are run over by trains, especially in crowded areas. Indian Railways have accepted the fact that given the size of operations, eliminating accidents is an unrealistic goal, and at best they can only minimize the accident rate. Human error is the primary cause, leading to 83% of all train accidents in India. While accident rates are low - 0.55 accidents per million train kilometre, the absolute number of people killed is high because of the large number of people making use of the network. Many railway stations are in gross disrepair, dirty, outdated and overcrowded, especially when compared to stations in developed countries. Passengers are seen on trains hanging out windows and even on the roof creating safety problems.[34] The interior of many train compartments are poorly maintained from rust, dirt and common wear and tear.

Financing

Lack of funds is a major constraint for speedy modernisation of the network, which is further hampered by diversion of funds meant for infrastructure to lower-prioritised purposes due to political compulsions.[37] Marketing Marketing is a peripheral activity and commercial department is basically engaged in selling business only Customer focus is still missing and customer satisfaction is not an organizational mission

Overcrowding Over 4,500 passengers are packed into a 9-car rake during peak hours, as against the rated carrying capacity of 1,700. This has resulted in what is known as Super-Dense Crush Load of 14 to 16 standing passengers per square meter of floor space. Trains on the suburban line are on average more than 4 minutes apart, contributing to the problem of overcrowding. ]

OPPORTUNITIES
Population of Mumbai : 1,36,62,885 Population travelling on daily basis : 69,00,000 Difference : 67,62,885 Overtaking advertising Peacock Media is spending close to Rs 1 crore on the upgrading and upkeep of the trains. It is charging the advertisers 15-20 per cent more than it spends (Rs 25 lakh as licence fee + Rs 1 crore on the upgrading of the trains). If the Indian railways could manage and optimize the use of the train for OOH profit margins would increase exponentially paving way for more investment in other areas. Fuel transport Petroleum products procured through imports are very expensive and thus electrical based railways system will always have an edge on parameter of pollution, energy cost, environmental factors. Potential Stations Connectivity to Powai, Colaba, Worli, Cuffe parade, Prabhadevi, Shivaji Park and Juhu.

More connectivity between Harbour line and Mail line, Harbour line and Western line, and Main line and Western line.

THREATS
Competition Suburban Railways is losing its market share in passenger and freight business to its close competitors. <<ask the audience why we havent mentioned metro and monorail>> Positioning The Indian railways positioning as a service largely for the middle class and lower class and lack of provisions for the otherwise drives away a segment of the economy from utilizing the railways. This will be a phenomenon more common place as the economy of Mumbai develops. Underfunding

http://www.rediff.com/netguide/2003/jul/29train.htm