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The Chennai Suburban Railway is a commuter rail system in the city of Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India operated by the Southern Railway, one of the operating railway zones of Indian Railways. Chennai has a complex railway network. The system uses electrical multiple units (EMUs) operating on alternating current (AC) drawn from over-head cables through the catenary system. The total system spans around 900 km of which only 286 km have dedicated dual tracks for suburban EMUs, the rest share tracks with other trains and are called mainline EMUs (MEMUs). As of 2013, the suburban sector has 580 services, including 250 in the Beach–Tambaram section, 240 services in the Central–Tiruvallur section, and 90 in the Central–Gummidipoondi. As of 2011–2012, 1.46 million people use the suburban train services daily.〔 This includes 500,000 in the Beach–Tambaram section, 350,000 in the Central–Tiruvallur section, and 100,000 in the Central–Gummidipoondi section.〔 This is a 13.2 percent increase over the previous year. A total of 65 stations in the suburban section have cycle stands.〔 ==History== Chennai has a fairly extensive suburban electric multiple unit (EMU) service. It was in the 1920s that the then British government felt the necessity of connecting the northern part of the city, which was mainly commercial, with the chiefly residential southwestern parts. In 1928, work began on constructing two meter gauge (MG) lines connecting the harbour with the southern suburb of Tambaram to run services using steam locomotives.〔 In early 1930, however, the government decided to electrify the lines, including the mainline starting from Egmore.〔 The plan to electrify railway lines in Madras was first initiated in 1923 by Sir Percy Rothera, an agent of the South Indian Railways. This was on account of the city's rapid expansion, with largely agricultural areas such as Saidapet, St. Thomas Mount and Tambaram developing into residential quarters. Plan to build a new line between Beach and Egmore and two lines between Egmore and Tambaram was announced as part of the suburban remodelling initiative of South Indian Railways.〔 The rolling stock, consisting of rigid wooden-bodied coaches, were built by Metro Camell.〔 On 27 December 1930, the first consignment of 25 electric carriages from England was received by the railway. The trains were painted in dull green with a black wheel base and featured wide sliding doors, a better-designed seating arrangement, and thick glass fronts. The new carriages were parked in Tambaram station. By March 1931, the construction works were completed,〔 and the first electrically operated rail service in Madras began on 2 April 1931 between Madras Beach and Tambaram, which became the earliest metre gauge to be electrified in the country. It was launched by Sir George Fredrick Stanley, the then governor of Madras, who at the opening ceremony was reported to have said that the new train services would transform "desolate south Madras into burgeoning garden cities".〔 However, the suburban services were opened to the public only a month later on 11 May 1931.〔 The section was electrified on 15 November 1931, with the first MG EMU services running on 1.5 kV DC.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher = IRFCA.org )〕 The Madras Electricity Supply Corporation, which powered the railway lines, was aided by sub-stations in Egmore and Meenambakkam. Soon, the number of trains shuttling passengers was increased to 45 a day, running every 10 minutes at peak hours, and every 30 minutes, otherwise. The running time between Madras Beach and Tambaram stations, which was 2 hours until then, was reduced to 49 minutes. The train service was made available from 4:00 in the morning up to 12:00 at night.〔 In the same year, mainline DC locomotives (YCG) were introduced to haul freight from the port. The system had the meter-gauge (MG) EMUs (YAU series) until the gauge conversion. Since then, the system has only the broad-gauge (BG) EMUs running.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Metro – Urban – Suburban Systems )〕 In the 1960s, the line from Madras Beach to Villupuram was converted to 25 kV AC traction.〔 This began with the conversion of the Madras Beach—Tambaram section on 15 January 1967. The rolling stock was changed to EMUs with motors and electricals from Toshiba or Hitachi. These were built by the Integral Coach Factory based in the city. Services too were extended to Chengleput with two daily services. In the late 1967, a Toshiba/Hitachi/Mitsubishi combine model YAM-1 21904 locomotive was introduced, which became the first MG 25 kV AC locomotive. Work on additional MG track between Tambaram and Chengleput began in 1969 and was completed in January 1971.〔 In 1985, suburban services to northern and western parts of the city began, with services running from the newly built suburban terminal of the Madras Central. With the growth in suburban traffic and the existing gauge lacking sufficient carrying capacity, the Indian Railway decided to convert the entire section between Beach and Tambaram, which by then had three MG lines, to BG in early 1991, with a 50:50 joint venture with the state government. The first BG line was laid in the section in 1992 parallel to the existing MG lines. The work was completed in February 1993. Of the three existing MG lines, two were exclusively used for suburban service and the third one was used for mainline express and passenger trains. The newly laid BG line started handling suburban trains supplementing the MG suburban lines.〔 In 1998, further to the Chengleput–Villupuram–Tiruchirapalli gauge conversion project, the railway decided to convert one of the MG lines in the section between Tambaram and Chengleput. However, the decision was soon changed due to large-scale protests by suburban commuters. This resulted in the conversion of the 'down' MG line (the easternmost line out of Tambaram) to BG, in addition to laying of a new parallel MG line. Within a year, work on the new BG was completed. By late 1999, there were two MG lines and one BG line between Tambaram and Chengleput, and the new BG line was electrified by late 2000.〔 The conversion of the mainline MG line between Egmore and Tambaram began in 2000, resulting in Tambaram station temporarily acting as terminal point for mainline express and passenger trains originally originating from and terminating at Egmore. This resulted in increase in traffic at Tambaram station, where two additional MG lines were built. In March 2001, the gauge conversion project in the Madras—Madurai section was completed and BG passenger services began, and the Beach—Tambaram section featured two MG and two BG lines. In December 2001, electrification work of the Chengleput–Villupuram BG line commenced. Gauge conversion work of two MG lines between Beach and Egmore began in December 2002 and was completed by February 2003. This resulted in increased BG EMU services between Beach and Tambaram and the MG services from Tambaram terminating at Egmore. The spur MG lines in the Beach—Washermanpet section were dismantled.〔 In February 2003, one of the MG lines between Tambaram and Chengalpet was taken up for conversion and was completed in December 2003, which was used for BG EMU services and by mainline express trains. This resulted in 2 BG lines and 1 MG line in the Tambaram–Chengleput section by the end of 2003. The last MG EMU services between the 30 km Egmore—Tambaram section were run on 1 July 2004, marking the end of the regular service of the YAM-1 locomotives, and the gauge conversion work in this section began. All MG mainline trains were switched over to diesel traction.〔 On 1 November 2004, with the completion of the gauge-conversion work in this section, BG EMU services were inaugurated with the addition of 15 new rakes from ICF.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「chennai suburban railway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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