The Mumbai Metro One (MM1) website is up and running. For a project that's not yet begun, it's a reasonably informative website.
However, once the project is up and running (stop rolling those eyes and please, a little less of the disbelief) I think they will have to significantly improve the website if they want to match the standards laid down by the Delhi Metro's website.
Here are my thoughts on some sections of the MM1 website
1. "About us" - From what's known in the press on the ownership of MM1 (i.e. specifically the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar, or VAG leg), Reliance Energy will hold 74% and MMRDA the balance 24%. No mention is made of this, at least not in the "About us" section. I don't know what to infer from this.
Interestingly enough, the "About Us" page of the Delhi Metro website says
DMRC has equal equity participation from GOI and GNCTD.GNCTD being Govt. of National Capital Territory Delhi and GOI being Government of India. In case you didn't know, the Delhi Metro is entirely Government owned and, I'm assuming, Government operated.
2. "Quick facts" - Most of this section is known in the public domain and a lot of this page is technical stuff. I found this disclaimer, in the tariffs part, interesting.
Journey time: 21 minutes3. "Press room": Disappointing. They've put up scanned .PDFs of a handful of articles. Delhi Metro has press clippings going back 5 years (Jan-02). Perhaps not a fair comparison, considering that MM1 has just been formed.
Frequency: 3.5 minutes, going down to 3 minutes during peak hours
Fares # (2003-2004 level)
+ Rs. 6 upto 3 Kms.
+ Rs. 8 between 3 Kms.to 8 Kms.
+ Rs. 10 beyond 8 Kms.
# Fares indicated are for 2003-2004 level and shall be revised @ 11% every fourth year (rounded off to the nearest rupee). Fares shall be fixed by Government of Maharashtra, through a notification.
4. "FAQs" - Reasonably good and again most of it known in the public domain. Would be good if they'd said something about the costing of MM1, or on the contentious issue of the Skybus being cheaper than the Metro (as pointed out by Sid in his comment here), but I'd be asking for too much I guess.
5. "Roadmaps" - What could be the spiffiest part of the website looks inadequate simply because you have to download 4 powerpoint files to figure out the map, distance, etc.. In any case, these files are all a grab/copy/paste of a Google Earth view of Mumbai, but marked with the VAG route and the planned stations. Though I found this page informative, I also found it a bit tacky and not user-friendly. Hopefully, this will be done up when MM1 is operational.
6. Right to information - This is the tricky part. I'm guessing that since Delhi Metro is Government-owned, it comes under the purview of RTI (sample DRMC's RTI page on its website here). Will this apply to MM1, which is 74% owned by Reliance Energy, and hence a privately-owned entity ? It would be sad if MM1 does not fall under RTI, because the message I'd get would be that since MM1 is private it's not answerable to anyone, including the commuters on its trains. For example, will we get annual reports for MM1 the way that the DRMC has put up on its site ?
Overall, I'm assuming that MM1 website is still in its initial phase and will be improved upon in the future.
Here are some websites of Metro Rail systems in other countries -
London Underground
NYC Transit (Thanks Rajesh for correcting, and helping, me here)
Beijing Subway
Guangzhou Metro
Singapore MRT
Tokyo Metro
Berlin Metro
Paris Metro
Also visit Wikipedia's list of Rapid Transport Systems
26 comments:
You hit the right spot .. on the RTI issue.
Also, REL has submitted their 3-year income/expense statement to MERC for finalisation of the Electricity rates - and surprisingly, there is NO mention of income receivable from Metro Rail (for electricity charges)!!
So, my guess is that they will use FREE electricity, which you and I will pay for ...
The Public Hearing is on March 21st .. let's see what happens...
On a slightly unrelated note, I feel that the Mumbai metro website has a more contemporary and classy look compared to the Delhi metro site which looks like a typical Govt website.
Of course on content part, there are obvious reasons for the the Delhi Metro website to be far better than the Mumbai Metro website.
And ya I totally agree with you on the RTI issue. Even though privately owned, when in the business of providing public service, RTI should be applicable.
SNO - Thanks for that informative comment. Indeed lets see how the public hearing shapes out and all the best in your efforts
Amit - Thanks for the comment. It might look classy, but looks apart, (and as you pointed out) there are obvious reasons for DRMC website being better than MM1. Btw, I've also updated the post and added some links to Metro websites in other countries.
Good point about the RTI. From one aspect, if there's any government money in the project, the public should have the right to all information about that project. If three quarters of the project is privately owned, that gives a good enough reason to only share information they want to share.
The New York Metro North Railroad is not an intra-city service like the rest of the train systems you've mentioned. The one you want to point to is the New York Subway system (also called NYC Transit). The link to that is - http://www.mta.info/nyct/service/subsch.htm
About the maps (Road maps? really? For a train system?), using powerpoint is just a complete mistake. I didn't even bother downloading the files.
Look at http://www.onnyturf.com/subway/ for an example of how this should really be done. The website is a volunteer effort, that uses Google Maps. Maybe we should attempt the same for the Mumbai Metro. Specially since the project is only beginning now, it should be a lot easier to get the map service started.
Rajesh - Thanks for the comment and thanks, especially, for giving me the relevant link to the NY Metro.
Good point on the "roadmap", I bothered downloading only one primarily for the purposes of this post.
That NYC Subway Google mashup you linked to, is really cool. I'd love to do it, only I'm totally analog and wouldn't know how to do it. Would love to help in any similar volunteer effort for the Mumbai Metro.
You're welcome. The text on your link still says Metro North Railroad, though. It should say New York Subway or NYC Transit. :) The Metro North is a set of trains that take people from New York city to upstate New York and Connecticut.
I'll try to find out what it would take to get that mashup to work for Bombay. And we needn't wait for MM1 to come up. We already have the existing train lines and if we get ambitious, we could try to cover the BEST bus routes too.
I just checked Google Maps for Bombay, and they already have a lot of detail. If they keep this up, there might not be much left to do.
What they don't support yet, though, is actually searching for anything.
Rajesh - Thanks very much for your help and the patient corrections. I think I must come to the USA and see all the things I've only heard about.
Thanks also for the Google search. Your idea sounds very good and could be very helpful as well. Please let me know in case there's anyway I can help, subject to, of course my limited tech abilities !
About the help and blah, "Mention not" as they say :)
The Google maps idea sounds good doesn't it? I want to do something that takes the best of http://www.onnyturf.com/subway/ and http://wikimapia.org
From the volunteer effort perspective, Wikimapia is good, but doesn't do too much with Search. So we need to allow volunteers to add information that is relevant to search, since Google Maps seems to not return any results for search within Bombay. This in spite of having information that is as detailed as the different hotels on Juhu beach!
The intention would be to start with something that is specific to Bombay but could be scaled to other places.
Let's draw up the requirements first. Technology comes later.
Rajesh - The Google idea sounds good and I'm all for it. I'm traveling for the next 3-4 of days, and will get back to you after that. I couldn't find your e-mail address on your blog, but if you read this, please mail me bombayaddict[at]gmail[dot]com so we can take this forward. Thanks.
Hi BA,
When I read about the website, I knew you would have a posting about it soon !
In addition to your comments one other thing the website should come up with it is the interlinking with the other proposed routes (though they have briefly mentioned it; Charkop-Colaba route has been changed slightly)
I would like to see a brand new website for the Mumbai International airport as well. All the information we have so far has been through interviews with the GVK honchos.
Cheers,
Vivek
Check out this site for Indian Metro train's google mashups.
Information Madness
Vivek - Thanks for the comment. The Mumbai Metro Yahoogroup remains a big source of information and knowledge for me.
I agree with both points. My guess is that since REL has won the contract for VAG, this website is limited to that extent. MIAL could also do with a website of its own.
Thanks a lot for the visit and appreciate your inputs. Hope to see you again.
Anon - thanks, that was useful.
And now the Mumbai International airport has a website !
http://www.csia.in/
Vivek - Thanks. Maybe we can expect something from MIAL soon..
Hey... dropping by to say hi.
It is funny that there seems to be a cyber squatter on www.mumbaimetro.com
The website does have a more contemporary look than the Delhi site. But I'd still give it a 0.5/10 on content.
The best urban mass transit website I have seen so far is the MBTA website in Boston. It beats NYC Transit hollow, especially the trip planning section. Where it gives you directions and times to go from anywhere to anywhere in Boston via metro, bus, train, or boat. It even gives you walking directions to the nearest Bus stop/ Subway station from where ever you are.
www.mbta.com
and just noticed that one of the maps spells 'Powai' as 'Pawai' and 'Sarvodaya' as 'Sorvodaya'
Jax - Thanks for the visit and the tip on the website. Very neat one. Here's hoping the Mumbai Metro site can scale up over time !
Please visit http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Mumbai_Metro for an initial writeup I have just posted on CZN (shouldn't be too alien if you are familiar with Wikipedia!!). Please feel free to post any improvements/corrections/additions/deletions on the talk page for discussion before making the actual changes
- Partho (http://www.parthochoudhury.com)
Partho - thanks for the comment. Actually I'm not very familiar with Wiki (have edited something only once and even that was a tall order for me!). I did check the Wiki you sent and it looks pretty good. I'm looking forward to regular updates on it !
[Repeat of deleted comment]
Here is a mashup for the Phase I of Mumbai Metro on Google Maps
Mumbai Metro Phase I (VAG section)
This is the line connecting Versova with Andheri and then to Ghatkopar as part of Phase I (see my article on this in Citizendium) - hence VAG!! I have tried to be as accurate as possible; Please let me know of any errors, and I will make changes....
- Partho
Partho - Looks ok to me, although I think you can also cross-check with the maps on the MM1 website. Btw, as you'd note in the comments above, Rajesh and myself are interested in setting up a volunteer-driven Mumbai Metro search (kinda like the mash-up you've made). If you're interested do let us know. Thanks for dropping by.
my mash up is based precisely on the ppt (sic!) maps and date provided on the MM1 site. BTW, what do you mean Mumbai Metro search? Please elaborate...lemme c if I can do something.....
Partho - could you please mail me on bombayaddict[at]gmail[dot]com ? Thanks.
Post a Comment