Key Points :
- Indian Railways is coming out with a new zero-based time table most likely on December 1,dropping about 600 passenger trains and eliminating 10,200 stations including 1,600 night stoppages for efficient operational purposes.
- Railways is now assessing which halts of the express and passenger trains have minimum activity, and based on that, the decision will be taken.
- Around 360 passenger trains would also be upgraded as mail/express trains and 120 mail/ express trains would be upgraded to super fast trains category.
In a complete reconstruction, Indian Railways is coming out with a new zero-based time table most likely on December 1,dropping about 600 passenger trains and eliminating 10,200 stations including 1,600 night stoppages for efficient operational purposes.Both passenger trains and express trains will be covered, and their halts will be reduced.
As per Railway Board Chairman ,V K Yadav, this plan of Indian Railways to reduce the number of halts was proposed earlier, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the execution was delayed.Once the trains under normal schedule starts, a new ‘zero-based’ timetable will be launched, which will have less number of halts.In his statement,Mr.Yadav said,“I cannot give a specific timeline at this point of time due to the continuing Covid situation. It will depend on when we resume the normal services,” he added. Railways is now assessing which halts of the express and passenger trains have minimum activity, and based on that, the decision will be taken. .By reducing the number of halts, trains can run non-stop for longer duration of time. This indicates that trains won’t be running late, and punctuality will increase.Besides, trains will take less time to reach their destination, if halts and stoppages are stopped. Even if a train stops for 2 minutes, around 8-10 minutes are wasted, which delays the overall schedule of that train, and also the trains coming in from behind.And incase the line is not clear, and then those 2 minutes of harmless halt can sometimes extend to 30-40 minutes.
As per the plan, around 360 passenger trains would also be upgraded as mail/express trains and 120 mail/ express trains would be upgraded to super fast trains category. Sources said the railway ministry is finalising the plan soon and would be notified soon.This change will also mean the schedule and frequency of all earlier time-tabled passenger trains will be rewritten. Yadav earlier stated that the plan is being prepared with the help of IIT, Mumbai was also aimed at introducing the concept of “dedicated corridor” or exclusive time slots for operating freight trains and also for maintenance.The railways would also do away with the practice of link express train service, which is also known as slip coaches or sectional carriages. These coaches are detached from the train at a station on way to its destination and these are later re-attached to another train to take the passengers to their destination. The railways plans to run separate trains rather than continuing the link service.
The new initiative will help to improve the railways’ financial health as there will be a great cut in the expenses. The railways has been making huge losses on account of the passenger segment and the national transporter has been frantically trying to improve its revenue.
