Talk:Chennai Mass Rapid Transit System/GA1

GA Review
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Nominator: 09:03, 24 December 2023 (UTC)

Reviewer: Chipmunkdavis (talk · contribs) 13:30, 31 March 2024 (UTC)

Starting this. At a quick look there are a couple of sentences at the end of paragraphs which aren't sourced, will have a look at text-source integrity later. A lot of single-paragraph sections, so potential MOS:OVERSECTION, although they are not very short so a closer look needed. Of more potential concern is the WP:CRITICISM section, it is usually better for criticism to be integrated into relevant sections. More detailed review to come. CMD (talk) 13:30, 31 March 2024 (UTC)


 * Thanks for taking up the review! I am meanwhile working on the initial comments.Magentic Manifestations (talk) 14:19, 31 March 2024 (UTC)

Lead

While the lead touches upon all sections of the article in some way, it seems oddly truncated. "Opened in 1995, it was the first elevated railway line in India and is integrated with the wider Chennai suburban railway network" starts with past tense discussing history and then switches straight to present day integration. Is the implication it was part of the wider network from the beginning? Unclear why Thirumyilai and Velachery are not linked while all other termini are. The acronym "MRTS" is not introduced, and it is not immediately clear (although it seems implied from later context) that this is a shorthand way to refer to the system. Conversely, EMU is introduced despite not being used in the part of the body where EMUs are discussed (which used both "Electric" and "Electrical". The third paragraph starts directionally without stating what the starting point is, and perhaps "deviating right" could be changed to a cardinal direction. The operations paragraph has room for some more detail, for example "The MRTS system is planned to be taken over by Chennai Metro Rail Limited" feels oddly out of place given operations were last mentioned in the second sentence. Why are they taking it over, and when? Per MOS:INDIA, lakh figures should come with a conversion.
 * Addressing the points:

Magentic Manifestations (talk) 14:25, 1 April 2024 (UTC)
 * 1) Have expanded the lead significantly
 * 2) Have split the sentences (tense variation)
 * 3) Terms linked once have not been re-linked. Others have been linked on the first appearence
 * 4) MRTS acronym has been introduced in the first line
 * 5) Cardinal direction given for the line mentioned
 * 6) Takeover expanded to cover the points
 * 7) mn figure given with lakhs

History
 * "The Chennai Suburban Railway started operating in 1931 with a single metre gauge line from Chennai Beach to Tambaram and two more lines were added connecting Chennai Central with Arakkonam and Gummidipoondi in 1985." The source for this is a one page pdf from indianrailways.gov.in. This is presumably a primary source, but putting that aside I can't find mention of the gauge or of the Arakkonam or Gummidipoondi lines.
 * Have added alternate source stating the lines with the year as indicated.


 * "In 1965, the Planning Commission set up a team to study to assess the adequacy and limitation of existing transport facilities, to determine the feasibility of different modes of transport and recommend phased programmes for development of transport facilities in major cities including Madras." This next sentence is sourced to this long pdf, also primary. I cannot find where the cited information would be, "1965" isn't found and Madras is mentioned only in the name of another report.
 * Have quoted an alternate source which states the year with the city


 * "To supplement the existing suburban rail network in Chennai, a number of surveys were conducted by the Madras Area Transportation Study Unit (MATSU), which was set up by the Planning Commission during 1968–70 and the Metropolitan Transport Project (MTP), which was established by Indian Railways in July 1971." is sourced to this The Hindu article. The article gives the author as Vydhianathan, S., possible the same as "V. SRIDHAR", but I can't square how the article-given date "28 September 2003" matches the The Hindu date "Jul 07, 2001". The source also does not mention, "Chennai", "MATSU", "Madras", "1968", or anything I can see in the sentence.
 * Have provided alternate source and modified the sentence to quote only the same


 * "The study identified eight important transport corridors including the 39 km (24 mi) north–southeastern rail corridor along the Buckingham Canal." This is cited to page 50 of an Indian National Academy of Engineering report. I suspect this is meant to be pages 41-42, as the document has pages prior to page 1 which affect the browser-given page number, and 41-42 have some of the cited information, namely the eight corridors and the Buckingham Canal route, but it doesn't have the given length.
 * Have modified the sentence to quote only as per source.

I'm a bit perplexed following this, as I'm not sure how the text and sources mismatch to this extent. The next source is similar, not mentioning 1975, Kasturba Nagar, or Manali Road, although it does mention 59.38 km and the pass-through destinations.
 * This was a combination with the previous source. Have modified the lines appropriately.

Skipping to the last sentence to check, "The project was intended to be implemented in four phases: Chennai beach to Thirumayilai, Tirumailai to St. Thomas Mount, St. Thomas Mount to Villivakkam and Villivakkam to Ennore.", doesn't seem exactly in line with the source, which notes there is a four-phase plan today but doesn't state this was the original goal.
 * The source dates back to 2005 and mentions a 2003 CMDA report which has allocated budget for the projected four phase plan. As of today, the 3/4 phases have been scrapped which is indicated later in the article.

Skipping to the sentence "The first phase was projected to cater to 6 lakh passengers per day but the actual patronage turned out to be lesser than the projected estimates.", this is sourced to a newspaper article from before the phase was constructed, so while it does provide a projection it is not able to compare that to actual patronage.
 * It is mentioned in the previous source. Linked the source here as well.

Skipping again to the start of Infrastructure, the given source does not mention the at-grade sections at terminals, the parallel suburban rail network, Buckingham Canal, or the Coromandel Coast.
 * It does mention at grade section at terminal stations (Beach, Velachery). In fact, it gives a detail report of stations which are elevated and are at grade with the length and year.

Alignment along the Buckingham canal is already sourced previously in the article. Have re-quoted the same source., which also shows the map with the parallel course of suburban network with MRTS. Addressed the coromandel coast point as well.

These source mismatches seem extensive, and I'm not confident they can be overhauled effectively within a GAN timeframe, especially as it seems each source will have to be checked. (On a side note on sources, the article has quite a few citations from The Times of India. Per WP:TOI this should be done with caution, although I did not see anything that raised alarm in a brief sweep.) My suggestion would be to take some time and go through the existing text carefully, fixing sources and identifying what is already sourced, before then fixing up the unsourced text. CMD (talk) 16:15, 1 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Have added comments inline. Thanks.Magentic Manifestations (talk) 09:05, 2 April 2024 (UTC)
 * The comments in line address some of the identified issues, but they don't speak to the wider question of why these errors exist and therefore what might need fixing throughout the article as I mentioned. A GAN is not meant to be a thorough finding and fixing every issue but an assessment, hence my advice about next steps. CMD (talk) 10:21, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Agree. There were some sections which were referenced earlier which I had not thoroughly verified before a GAN. While I acknowledge the bigger issues, I am in the process of re-validating it line by line, should be complete in a day. Will confirm once that is done. Thanks!Magentic Manifestations (talk) 10:40, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * @Chipmunkdavis I have gone through the entire article and modified as required to add new sources and make changes to the content as required. Understand this ought to have happened earlier, but better late than never. Let me know if you have any further comments. Thanks! Magentic Manifestations (talk) 15:47, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
 * @Chipmunkdavis, reminder ping. It looks to me like you may have intended to fail this one? -- asilvering (talk) 17:22, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

I was giving some time for reworks, and wanted to see if there was an explanation. I have been looking through the article again, and feel that while the underlying structure and information density is good, the article still needs more work to meet all the GACR.

Issues remain with paraphrasing. "studies conducted by RITES during 1987 and 1994, taking into account population growth and the capacity of public transport system" is almost 1:1 from the source. "the project had costed ₹280 crore (US$35 million) which was completely borne by the Government of India" runs close to "Cost of this section was Rs.280 crore which was entirely borne by the Indian Railways." "IRCTC opened the first food plaza at Thiruvanmiyur station" seems taken from the title "IRCTC opens 1st food plaza at Thiruvanmiyur MRTS station". "With the completion of connectivity to St. Thomas Mount, the MRTS will be able to integrate into the grid of the Chennai Suburban Railway and the Chennai Metro Rail, thus sharing an inter-modal transportation interchange with both the systems and facilitate uninterrupted movement of commuters across different rail lines in the city" is too close to "The completion of MRTS is crucial for Chennai as once connected it will be integrated into the grid of suburban rail and metro rail, thereby allowing uninterrupted movement of commuters across different rail lines in the city". There are also quite a few places in the article where specific words are copied, which is sometimes necessary but comes off as potentially worth copyediting when alongside these longer paraphrasing examples. I did not check this extremely thoroughly, other examples may exist.

On broadness, this article does quite well. Some of the sources discussed the development of turnback facilities as the line extended which improved capacity, probably worth including. Odd to read "On Sundays and holidays, 51 trips are operated" when the number for weekdays is not given. The finances subsection could note who subsidises the shortfall.

Could not verify the licence of File:Chennai Rail.png. If there is a licence page provided by Chennai Metro Rail, it should be noted in the file description.

On neutrality and stability there are no obvious issues. It is also worth noting here that there were substantial improvements to the article both before and during this GAN. My recommendation would be to come back to this article after a period to get a fresh look at how it might be edited. Thank you for the work here, I learnt a lot, and it's always a pleasure to read about an expanding metro system. CMD (talk) 13:20, 12 April 2024 (UTC)