Western Railway’s Disha app to give info on train timings

Mumbai: The Western Railway (WR) plans to links its app, ‘Disha’, with its own Train Management System (TMS) angling out the super giant Google who had been approaching the WR for the same. The app can be accessed via android phones.

People will no longer have to be dependent on only railway announcements during  train delays. The commuter will now be able to know exactly how late their train is directly on their phone.

The WR who have been trying to work out a way to retain the information of its Mumbai suburban was hesitant to hand over their inside information to Google and are working on an in-house project that will allow each commuter to know where their train is, at that very exact moment. An official said, "We wanted to provide this facility to commuters, but without handing over our intellectual property like the timing of our trains to an outsider."

As a result, information from the TMS, a software system that already tracks trains among many of its other functions, will be filtered and directed to another server that will be linked to WR's Disha app. Once live, the app will be able to tell you if your regular train to work and back home has been delayed, down to the seconds. The official said, "Currently the TMS gives information on the position of each and every local train, long distance trains in the Mumbai line, status of signals, information of diversions that can be or are already implemented, interlocking of tracks etc.”

The benefits of the TMS system have finally reached the common man due the leaps made in technology especially smart-phones in recent years.

Convenient travel

• People will no longer have to be dependent on only railway announcements during  train delays.
• Currently, the TMS gives information on long distance trains in the Mumbai line, status of signals and diversions.