Image has been used for representational purpose only. File photo | Photo Credit: Vishwaranjan Raut
According to a Right to Information response received from the Indian Railways on punctuality performance of trains, around 17% of all passenger trains were running late, leading to over 1.10 crore minutes being wasted in 2022-23.
In 2022-23, 1,42,897 passenger trains were delayed, resulting in a total loss of 1,10,88,191 minutes. “There are 5,25,660 minutes in a year. By that count, the railways have (theoretically) lost about 14 years of passenger trains due to the delay,” said RTI activist Chandrashekhar Gaur, who sought the answer.
The punctuality performance of passenger trains stood at 83.69%, which is well short of the Railway Board’s ideal target of 95%.
After 2 june balasore train accidentIndian Railways has come under limelight for balancing both punctuality and safety when it comes to movement of trains on various routes.
For Duronto trains, the punctuality performance was the worst, at 68.31%, with 2,132 Duronto trains being late by 3,45,640 minutes. Shatabdi trains, on the other hand, were the most punctual, with a punctuality performance of 91.76%, with only 1,081 trains running late for a total of 75,715 minutes.
The Railway Board under the Department of Signaling and Telecommunications maintains reports on the punctuality of trains and their average speed. A railway official said, “Following punctuality properly is equally important for improving the system.”
The official further said, “Trains may be delayed due to external factors beyond railway control, for example, bottlenecks due to inadequate infrastructure, or increased passenger and freight traffic, adverse weather conditions, or heavy road at level crossing gates.” transportation. There may also be law and order issues, or theft of railway property and middle section including cattle and human beings.
improve punctuality
Railways continuously works on improving punctuality by removing infrastructural bottlenecks; End-to-end running of some trains with diesel locomotives to avoid disruption due to diesel to electric conversion; Conversion of conventional rakes of Mail/Express trains to new Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) rakes; rationalizing the timetable to group trains with similar speeds; Reduction in dwell time at major terminals etc.
Furthermore, while the Indian Railways is setting an ambitious target to increase the speed of Vande Bharat trains to 160 km/h, the average speed of all types of trains ranges from 36 kilometers per hour (kmph) to a maximum of 71 km/h. Till then. , stated in the RTI reply.
In 2022-23, passenger trains ran at the slowest speed of 35 kmph, while the average speed of mail/express trains (which include Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Jan Shatabdi, Garibrath, Vande Bharat, Suvidha, Tejas) was 51 km per hour.
The highest operating speed recorded by Vande Bharat trains was 96 kmph, including on the Delhi-Varanasi route. Last behind were Tejas trains which ran at an average speed of 73 kmph in 2022-23.
“Trains may be delayed due to external factors beyond railway control, for example, bottlenecks due to inadequate infrastructure, or increased passenger and freight traffic, adverse weather conditions, or heavy road traffic at level crossing gates”.OfficerIndian Rail