Dna on May 11 had reported on how one such association- the Western India Passenger Association- had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and railway minister Suresh Prabhu on the issue.
The railway's decision to set back the implementation of the new time-table for its trains from July 1- when it is usually set in place- to October 1 this year has renewed hope among passenger associations that the ministry might be contemplating something far-reaching with the time-tabling exercise rather than the mechanical treatment it has got over the years.
Dna on May 11 had reported on how one such association- the Western India Passenger Association- had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and railway minister Suresh Prabhu on the issue. It had also written to Chairman of Standing Committee on Railways Dinesh Trivedi asking the three to ensure the opportunity to speed up the railways is not missed. While the WIPA had demanded that the implementation of the new time-table be delayed till August 1, the railways has gone further and kept the implementation date to October 1.
Speaking to DNA, Thomas Simon of the WIPA said that just by creating a new time-table that takes care of the improved technological strengths of trains and the speed of tracks, at least 50 percent more trains can be run.
"In most cases, the schedule of the train has remained unchanged for over thirty years. We have mentioned several examples in our letter to the PM and the railway minister. Time-tabling has become a mechanical affair with some minor changes incorporated that save just about five to ten minutes. This is despite opportunities to shave off anything between 5 to 10 hours from some trains," said Simon.
A prime example of the railways' illogical and unchanging time-tabling system, according to Simon, is the way the 16381/16382 CST-Kanyakumari Jyanati Janata Express is run. "This train takes between 44 hours 15 minutes and 45 hours 30 minutes to cover the 2136 kilometre route. This means the train runs at a speed of 48 kilometres per hour. However the speed sanctioned by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) is 105kmph to 110 kmph. Our studies show this train can be speeded up by anything between 8 hours to 11 hours. Imagine what a difference it would make on the path for other train," said Simon.
Another example is the 12284 Nizamuddin – Ernakulam Duronto which if diverted through Nagpur- which electrified double tracks- instead of Konkan Railway, the train will take 32-34 hours to reach Ernakulam against 42 hours now.
Another demand that the WIPA has made to the powers-that-be is to give new speed challenges to various categories of trains being run by the railways. The demand includes setting the average speed of an express train at 60kmph, a super fast train at 70 kmph, the Rajdhani at 80 kmph and the Duronto at 85kmph. Incidentally the average speed of a superfast train in India is 55 kmph, a speed limit set several years ago.
The railway's time-tabling exercise:
The exercise is a huge one with officials of all the 17 railway zones and Konkan Railway deliberating on how best to run trains in the shortest possible time. The catch is that the solutions should be such that no train should end up slowing down some other since it would have a cascading effect nationwide. The deliberations are on train timings- as per passenger demands- train speeds- as per operational and technical specifications- and introduction of more trains on a particular path.
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