On Friday, the Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronic and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha informed various steps taken to increase the average speed of goods trains.
Indian Railways has taken the following steps to increase the average speed of goods trains:
- Introduction of time-tabled containers and auto trains.
- Increasing the maximum permissible speed of freight wagons to 75 kmph for loaded and 100 kmph for empty wagons.
- Targeted completion of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC).
- Targeted completion of supercritical and critical works of doubling, multi-tracking and traffic facility works.
- Creation of dedicated freight paths.
Other steps taken to increase the speed of the trains include:
a) Removal of speed restrictions
b) Construction of road over bridges (ROBs)
c) Construction of road under bridges (RUBs),
d) Right powering of trains
e) Introduction of twin pipe in wagons
During 2018-2022, the average speed of freight trains increased by nearly 62.2 percent. During the same period, the average speed of ordinary passenger trains increased by nearly 12.5 percent. The average speed of Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) and mail/express trains have increased by 4.2 and 1.5 percent, respectively.
Mission Raftaar
In the Railway Budget 2016-17, to increase the speed of trains in Indian Railways (IR), ‘Mission Raftaar’ was announced. Indian Railways has rationalized the timetable with the assistance of IIT Bombay.
To increase the speed of trains, Indian Railways converted passenger trains to Express services and Express services to Super fast services.
Also, the conversion of trains operating with conventional coaches with MEMUs is aimed at providing faster services to the passengers. Since 2015-16, 492 train services have been converted into MEMUs.
Indian Railways is also introducing Vande Bharat trains, which have higher speed potential. Till 24th July 2023, 50 Vande Bharat services have been introduced in the country.