In a good news for passengers, railways is all set to introduce more of its niche trains -- Antyodaya Express, Uday Express and Tejas Express -- likely in the next 12 months, according to the new timetable to be released tomorrow.
In a statement, the railways today said that its Trains at a Glance (TAG), the railway publication, will include a new Antyodaya Express, a train with all unreserved and general coaches, and two brand new Tejas Express trains, India's first semi-high speed fully air-conditioned trains.
Two new Uday Express trains -- the AC chair car double decker trains - have also been included in the timetable.
"Since these five new trains have been included in the new timetable, it is expected that they will be introduced soon," an official told PTI.
The railways, which has already introduced 23 Humsafar Express trains, 10 Antyodaya Express, one Tejas Express, one Uday Express, has now incorporated them in the new TAG.
The statement also said that to avoid criss-cross movement at important stations, the terminals of important trains have been changed. In the current financial year, terminal of 23 trains have been shifted, the statement said.
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The idea was to decongest its terminals, an official said.
A "terminal" or "terminus" is a station at the end of a railway line. Trains arriving there have to end their journeys (terminate) or reverse out of the station.
Among them, 12 trains are in the Northern Railway, five in the North Central Railway, one each in the East Central Railway and the North Western Railway and four trains in the South Central Railway which have been shifted.
In January this year, a Niti Aayog report on railways had suggested decongestion of railway terminals, saying that trains, both passenger and freight, undergo substantial waiting just short of major terminals.
Railways has also shifted 20 trains to adjacent terminals, thus streamlining operations at terminals by avoiding reversals, which keep the tracks engaged contributing to delays.
In the current financial year, the terminals of four trains in the South East Central Railway, seven trains in the West Central Railway, two in Eastcoast Railway, five trains in the South Eastern Railway and two trains in North Central Railway have been shifted.
These changes will be reflected in the new timetable published in the railway publication, Trains at a Glance (TAG), which will be effective from tomorrow.
This year, the duration of maintenance works to be carried out by railways will be 292 hours more than the hours in 2017, according to the railway publication, the statements said.
The new TAG will also reflect a policy change of the railways in which it has been decided that the trains, having a maximum permissible speed of 110 kilometers per hour (kmph), will be run at 105 kmph to reflect the actual running time and improve punctuality of the trains. This will also result in change of arrival and departure timings of many trains.
However, the Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Tejas, Gatimaan, Humsafar, Garibrath, Duronto and Antyodaya Express trains having MPS of 130 kmph have been charted at 130 kmph.
The railways move of replacing conventional rakes with the modern Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches will also be continued with the national transporter setting a target of replacing 66 more rakes by March 31 next year.
In the year 2017-18, 49 conventional rakes have been replaced by LHB rakes. In the current financial year, 48 rakes have already been replaced by LHB rakes till today.
The Indian Railways runs about 3,500 reserved trains which include Gatiman Express, Rajdhani Express, Humsaafar 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 4,600 passenger and 5,000 EMU trains. The volume of passengers carried daily is about 2.22 million.