We are very enterprising when it comes to doing something which is almost impossible with the technology employed, by compromising on safety parameters like not permitting minimum maintenance required etc. There is a limit to productivity which can be achieved with a given technology. If we try to extract more out of it, safety gets compromised and workers get unduly stressed which is not good in long run. Incremental improvement in a given technology cannot go on indefinitely, a time comes when the incremental benefits saturate and that is the time to invest in new technology. It seems that Mumbai suburban section has reached that state. IRlys must go for state of the art Railway signaling systems which suits our requirements rather than over-stretching the current signaling with operation of more & more trains on the same route, thereby compromising with maintenance & safety.
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Earlier Japanese Rly engineers came to study Mumbai Suburban Rly, in order to suggest how more suburban services could be permitted. They were astonished how could we operate so many trains with the relatively old technology being employed. They achieve better performance parameters, but by employing a suitable state of the art railway communications/ signaling & other technologies amongst CBTC/ radio based/ others without any compromise on safety.
Decision of accelerated augmentation of the line capacity on IRlys through aggressive doubling/multiplying and restricting the introduction new train is a welcome step in this direction. We can expect to see capacity expansion in Mumbai railway system in near future which will permit adequate down times for maintenance activities and safety records are likely to improve.