Chennai Suburban Railway

Chennai Suburban Railway
A local train at Velachery railway station in the MRTS line heading toward Chennai Beach
Overview
Native name	சென்னை புறநகர் ரயில்வே
Owner	Indian Railways
Area served	Tamil Nadu: Greater Chennai, Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Ranipet, Vellore, Tirupattur, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram Andhra Pradesh: Chittoor, Tirupati Puducherry: Pondicherry
Locale	Chennai Metropolitan Area, Tamil Nadu, India
Transit type	Suburban rail
Number of lines	8 routes, all with 4 tracks
Line number	North Line   West Line   South Line   West-North Line   West-South Line   South-West Line   Chennai MRTS   Circular Line
Number of stations	300+
Daily ridership	2.5 million
Annual ridership	912.57 million/year (2018–2019)[1]
Headquarters	Southern Railway Headquarters, Chennai
Website	https://sr.indianrailways.gov.in
Operation
Began operation	1931; 93 years ago (1931)
Operator(s)	Southern Railways
Character	At-grade, elevated
Train length	12/9 coaches
Technical
System length	1,211.81 km (752.98 mi) (unique) 509.71 km (316.72 mi) true suburban 702.1 km (436.3 mi) MEMU service
Track gauge	5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) Indian gauge
Electrification	25 kV 50 Hz AC overhead catenary
Average speed	50 km/h (31 mph)
Top speed	100 km/h (62 mph)
Chennai Suburban Railway Network

The Chennai Suburban Railway is a commuter rail system in the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, operated by the Southern Railways branch of Indian Railways. It is the second largest suburban rail network in terms of route length and the third largest in terms of commuters in India. Around 1,000 services are operated daily between 4:00 a.m. and midnight. It is the longest suburban circular route in India covering of 235.5 km (146.3 mi).

Chennai has a complex railway network. It is the third busiest suburban rail system in India after Mumbai and Kolkata. It has separate tracks for local and express trains. The system extensively uses electrical multiple units (EMUs) operating on alternating current (AC) drawn from overhead wires through the catenary system. The total system spans around 1,211.81 kilometres (752.98 mi), of which only 509.71 kilometres (316.72 mi) 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 1,000 services, including 250 in the Beach–Chengalpattu section, 240 services in the Chennai Central–Arakkonam section, and 90 in the Chennai Central–Gummidipoondi section.^[2] As of 2020, 2.5 million people use the suburban train services daily and 401.72 million passenger every year.^[2] This includes 8,20,000 in the Beach–Tambaram section, 5,50,000 in the Central–Pattabhiram section, and 2,00,000 in the Central–Gummidipoondi section and 2,00,000 in the MRTS section.^[2] This is a 13.2 percent increase over the previous year. A total of 65 stations in the suburban section have bicycle stands.^[3]