India has one of the largest railway networks in the world, which is also one of the largest employers in the world. It is amazingly complex, and has to deal with a number of very unique challenges. However when it comes to efficiency, it is at best decent, and has lots of room for improvement. Safety and punctuality are major issues, and there is also a need for redistribution of trains (more trains in many routes, particularly in rural areas and suburban railways, perhaps instead of redundant trains on the main and saturated routes).
A glaring drawback of Indian Railways is the speed of trains. Currently only one train reaches 160 Kph (that too in small patches), and a handful of others (perhaps 10-12) reach 130 Kph. 130 or 160 Kph as maximum speed are not really bad by international standards, but the average speed of Indian trains is disappointing to say the least. Only three trains average 90 Kph or more and around 10 are in 80-90 Kph. These are all "elite" trains- Rajdhani, Shatabdi or Duronto- fully air-conditioned and relatively short (15-16 coaches). The long 24-coach mail/express trains usually do not have average speeds of even 70 Kph with maximum speed restricted to 110 Kph.
The really baffling thing is that there does not appear to be any serious will among the authorities to improve this situation. These speeds have remained static since the last 30-40 years. Admittedly there are now some more trains averaging above 80 Kph than about 15 years back, and some routes (like Howrah-New Jalpaiguri) have seen considerable improvements, but the overall standard has not gone up at all. Also, some Express trains have actually been slowed down considerably. Poorva Express, Kalka Mail, Tamil Nadu Express, Vaigai Express are only some trains to suffer this fate. And all this despite the fact that many of these trains run entirely over fully-electrified Class-A tracks (fit for 160 Kph), and over the years, the locomotives as well as signalling systems have been considerably improved.
I want to see the speed bar of Indian trains (except for local services) being raised by at least 15-20Kph. I believe it is possible to achieve this simply with intelligent scheduling and without any significant change in infrastructure. The process is undoubtedly long and challenging. However, it can start as follows:
Many of the routes connecting the 7 major cities of India (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad) are fully electrified, Class A tracks with double line. All the Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto trains in these routes should aim to attain the speed of 160 Kph for as long as possible. This should be possible with WAP5 locomotives with 15-16 carriages with the state-of-the-art LHB rakes. Consequently, the average speeds of these trains should be scaled up to 100-110 Kph. This will quicken the journeys of trains like Howrah Rajdhani (13 hrs), Sealdah Rajdhani (13 hrs), Sealdah-New Delhi Duronto (12.5 hrs), Howrah-Mumbai Duronto (19 hrs), Howrah-Chennai Duronto (yet to be introduced-16 hrs), Mumbai Rajdhani (12 hrs), August Kranti Rajdhani (13 hrs), Chennai Rajdhani (20 hrs), Secunderabad Rajdhani (16 hrs), Mumbai-Ahmendabad Shatabdi (4.5 hrs) and Chennai-Bangalore Shatabdi (3.5 hrs).
Apart from these premier trains with relative less coaches, many classic "superfast" trains with 24 coaches also ply on these routes on daily basis. These trains have a large number of non-AC coaches, which are limited to 110 Kph. It should be a priority to rework the design of these coaches so that they can run at 130-140Kph, if not 160. If this can be done, then 24-coach trains with WAP7 locomotives should be able to run consistently at 140Kph on the Class A tracks, with average speeds of around 90 Kph. This set of trains can include: Poorva and/or Howrah-New Delhi Superfast (16 hrs), Gitanjali and/or Jnaneswari Express (22 hrs), Coromondal Express (19 hrs), Golden Temple Mail (15.5 hrs between Mumbai and Delhi), Tamil Nadu Express (24 hrs), Andhra Pradesh Express (19 hours), Brindavan and/or Lalbagh Express (4 hrs), Kerala Express (36 hrs).
Once these are achieved, the target should be to improve the speed bars of the remaining trains. No express train should have an average speed below 50 Kph. The speed-up will ensure that the train is again relevant to well-off urban professionals. As punctuality improves and distribution of trains is re-adjusted to suit the needs of passengers, people living in rural areas will have easier access to nearest major stations where they can board the fast-moving trains to their destinations. I hope that the train, always more energy-efficient and eco-friendly, again becomes the first-choice mode of transport in India, trumping roadways and low-cost private airlines.
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