Spend up to 3hrs less for train journeys over 500km
You will soon have to spend up to three hours less than the current travel time for long train journeys over 500km. The Railways decided to incorporate "innovative timetabling" after Minister Piyush Goyal urged its implementation. The new timings will be updated in November. Apart from reducing travel time, it will also give up to four additional hours to railway divisions for maintenance work.
"Our plan is to maximize use of the existing rolling stock," an official said. "It can be done in two ways- if we've a train that's waiting somewhere to return, we can use it during the lie-over period." Halt time of trains at stations has been reduced. Many won't stop at stations with minimal footfall. These are attempts to increase average speed of trains.
The whole exercise is expected to affect the schedules of about 500 trains. Fifty trains will be upgraded to super-fast. Travel time will immediately reduce by up to three hours on 51 trains. Among those impacted, the Bhopal-Jodhpur Express will take 95 minutes less time, while the Guwahati-Indore Special will complete its run 115 minutes faster. The Ghazipur-Bandra Express will also take 95 minutes less.
Indian Railways roped in German Railways to assist it with making the existing corridors semi high speed. Trains will run at 200kmph. It also plans to launch 'Train-20', self-propelled semi-high speed trains, by 2020. They will be manufactured under the Make in India initiative. Earlier this week, the Special Rajdhani was launched on the Mumbai-Delhi route that reduced travel time by at least two hours.
