The Ministry of Railways has released its new All India Railway Time Table known as “TRAINS AT A GLANCE (TAG)” effective from today i.e. 1st July, 2019. In addition to the “Trains at a Glance”, all the 17 Zonal Railways has also released their respective Zonal Railway Time Tables (5 Zonal time tables in all, each Zonal Time Table comprising 3-4 Zonal Railways) which comes into effect from today i.e. 1st July, 2019.
The new Trains at a Glance is available on Indian Railways’ official website i.e. www.indianrailways.gov.in.
Highlights of the new time table are as under:
Overview
- Indian Railways introduced the first self-propelled semi high speed train Vande Bharat Express (22435/22436) between New Delhi and Varanasi on 14.02.2019. The introduction of this train has resulted in the reduction of travel time between New Delhi and Varanasi by about 40%. Due to over whelming success of the train, further proliferation of Vande Bharat Express trains will be undertaken over Indian Railways.
- Indian Railways runs about 3600 Express trains which include Vande Bharat Express, Gatiman Express, Rajdhani Express, Humsafar Express, Tejas Express, Duronto Express, Antyodaya Express, Garib Rath Express, Shatabdi Express, Sampark Kranti Express, YUVA Express, Janshatabdi Express and other types of Express trains. This is in addition to about 4300 Passenger trains and 5500 EMU trains. The volume of passengers carried daily is about 22.7 million. The total passenger kilometre are 3226.6 million per day.
- III. In addition, more than 34200 Special train trips were run during 2018-19 to clear extra rush and meet passenger demand. About 500 coaches were permanently augmented in about 300 trains to increase the carrying capacity.
- IV. Proliferation of new train services:
As on 01.07.2019, 1 Vande Bharat Express train, 34 Humsafar Express trains, 11 Antyodaya Express trains, 2 Tejas Express trains, 1 Uday Express train which have already been introduced have been incorporated in the new Time Table.
- Maximize the utilization of rolling stock:
A review of the lie over periods of rakes at different destinations revealed that rakes of some of the trains were idling at the terminals. Some of these have been utilized for providing 40 new services, extension of 21 services and increase the frequency of 8 services. All these have been incorporated in the new Time Table w.e.f. 1st July, 2019.
- VI. Efforts to improve punctuality of late running trains: A root cause analysis of the reasons for loss of punctuality has been carried out for trains regularly running late and necessary changes in the time table have been incorporated to improve punctuality. In addition spare rakes have been formed at important terminals to provide additional spare rake to replace the late arriving incoming rake. This will ensure right time start of the trains arriving late at major terminals.
- Standardization of rakes: The rakes at different maintenance depots have been standardized by integration of the rake links to improve flexibility in operations and thereby help in improving punctuality. This will lead to further improvements in rake utilization, improving punctuality, minimizing rescheduling and saving of slots in the pit lines. The overall earnings of Indian Railways will improve due to better rake turnaround and improved flexibility of train operations. As on 1st July, 2019, about 1000 rakes out of 2700 have been standardized/integrated.
- Speeding up of trains: As part of Mission Raftaar, 261 trains have been speeded up (by upto 110 minutes) over different Zonal Railways thereby providing a faster transit to the passengers.
- IX. Replacement of conventional Passenger trains with MEMU/DEMU: The short distance passenger trains especially having reversal enroute are being replaced by Mainline Electric Multiple Units (MEMUs) & Diesel Electric Multiple Units (DEMUs). In the year 2018-19, 141 number of conventional passenger services have been replaced by MEMUs/DEMUs thereby increasing the overall mobility of the system.
- Conversion of ICF rakes into LHB rakes:
The Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches provide more comfortable and safe journey. To improve the travel experience, a total of 411 pairs of important long distance trains are presently running with LHB coaches by utilizing 465 rakes.
- XI. Change of terminals of trains:
To streamline train operations, by reducing criss-cross movement the terminals of 12 pairs of trains have been changed. In addition, the movement of 27 pairs of trains has been rationalized through adjacent/satellite terminals to obviate the need for reversal of locomotives.
