The train operation numbers that the railways is racking up stand proof, he added. According to statistics available with the railway ministry, over the last two years, it ran a whopping 70,000 special trains.
In a candid admission at a time when the railways is looking at bullet trains, maglev transport and high speed trainsets, the public transporter has said that the average speed of its passenger trains has fallen by one kilometre per hour (kmph) and that of its freight trains by 2kmph. Officials agreed that the speed statistics available with the railways now show that Indian Railways might be among the slowest in the world when it comes to major railway networks. While the maximum speed capability of passenger trains has increased up to 130 kmph- 160 kmph, the average speed during real-time operations is hovering around 45 kmph. Similarly, while the maximum speed of freight trains has increased up to 75 kmph-100 kmph, the average speed while in real-time goods transit stands a lowly 24 kmph.
"The railways has become severely congested because the important routes, also called the trunk routes, that connect major cities are now running at the kind of over-capacity unimaginable anywhere in the world. Every year they are adding more trains to these routes, the result of which is lowering of average speed because more the number of trains on a route, the slower it gets," said a top railway official.
The train operation numbers that the railways is racking up stand proof, he added. According to statistics available with the railway ministry, over the last two years, it ran a whopping 70,000 special trains. Moreover during this period it introduced 308 new trains, extended 99 trains, increased the frequency per week of 188 trains and permanently added 1,610 coaches to various trains. The railways ran a little over 2.5 lakh extra coach trips in the past two years, as per the ministry data.
These figures are over and above the 13,000 passenger trains, the railways runs every day using more than 10,000 locomotives and 60,000 coaches to carry about 2.3 crore passengers to different parts of the country.
"It is just so unfortunate that while all over the world, the trains are getting faster, our network is getting slower because we have to keep increasing trains on a limited set of tracks in order to cater to such a huge population with rising incomes, and well-entrenched job-related migratory trends," said an official.
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