Long Distance Trains To Soon Be Cut By Up To 2 Hours
NEW DELHI : The Indian Railways has cut down the running time of 500 trains as part of its internal audit process and the new timetable will be introduced from next month in November. The Indian Railways, in a major overhaul, has decided to cut short the running time of more than 500 long-distance trains by 15 minutes to 2 hours.
According to reports from The Times of India, it has been decided by the administration to bring down the running time of these trains after railway minister Piyush Goyal gave directions to the officials to improve the operation of trains. This new timetable is part of the improvement-driven changes and it will also give every railway division two to four hours to invest in maintenance works.
A senior railway official told the media that the railway administration intends to maximize the usage of the existing rolling stock available to the railways and therefore, the running time has been reduced. As per the internal audit process, the railways plans to upgrade 50 mail and express trains to the status of super-fast trains. So, from the next month, a new timetable will be introduced wherein the halting time of trains will be cut down at stations where footfall has been found to be lesser.
From November, 51 trains will see an immediate implementation of this innovative timetabling and slowly it will be increased to 500 trains. This innovative timetabling is not just aimed at improving the operations but is also expected to improve the average speed of the trains. So, train such as the Guwahati-Indore Special will take 115 minutes less to complete its total journey of 2,330 Km and Bhopal-Jodhpur Express will do so in 95 minutes lesser time and so will Ghazipur-Bandra Terminus Express.
In the new timetable around 50 such trains which will be run like this. Fifty-one trains will immediately see reduced run time from one to three hours. This will go up to more than 500 trains,” the official said.
The audit exercise is part of an overhaul of the rail system to increase the average speed of existing trains, the official said.Trains such as the Bhopal-Jodhpur Express will reach 95 minutes early while the Guwahati-Indore Special will complete its 2,330-km journey 115 minutes early and the 1929-km journey of the Ghazipur-Bandra Terminus Express will be completed 95 minutes earlier.
The halt times of trains at stations have also been reduced by the Indian Railways. In another move to reduce travel time of trains, the Railways has decided that trains will not stop at stations with low footfall. The new timetable will also provide each railway division two to four hours for maintenance works. The railways is also in the process of reviewing permanent speed restrictions.
