Railways to go for faster trains

The carrying capacity of the railways is set to increase with the addition of 290 coaches across 152 trains, including Rajdhanis. Following the addition of coaches, these trains will be able to carry at least 100 passengers more. The railways have also reduced the travel time for 140 long-distance trains.

Coaches have been added to tackle the huge waiting list on popular long-distance trains.

"We will extend platforms at over 550 stations in order to accommodate these longer trains," a railway official said. Addressing a press conference here, Railway Board Chairman JK Batra said the travel time had been reduced by one hour for 85 trains, by 60-120 minutes for 31 trains and by 120-300 minutes for 16 trains. For another eight trains, the travel time has been reduced by more than five hours.

Following the increase in speeds, the railways have rationalised their time-table. The new timings are expected to come into effect from July 1.

Detailing the move behind the addition of more coaches, Batra said these were surplus spares, kept idle for replacement in case of emergencies.

"We have tried to strike a balance between adding coaches to existing trains and running new trains using these spare coaches," he said, adding that the railways now had 343 spare coaches.

The four Garib Rath trains announced by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad would start service on October 2.

These would be fully air-conditioned and the charges would be less than 25 per cent of the current third-a/c ticket charges, Batra said.