New Delhi:

The Railway Board has reduced the speed of semi-high speed trains Gatimaan Express and Vande Bharat from 160 kmph to 130 kmph till the automatic train protection system gets operational.

At present, only Gatiman Express and two Vande Bharat trains run at 160 kmph between Hazarat Nizamuddin (New Delhi) and Agra rail route due to suitable track conditions.

On June 24, the Railway Board’s executive director (signal) issued a letter to the general manager of NCR zone and said that the issue of speed of these trains was examined.

“…it is decided that as advised earlier, Zonal Railways to expedite IR-ATP Kavach works in the section and till the time the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system is operational, trains to run at maximum speed of 130 kmph in the section,” the letter said.

Directing the NCR zone to ensure the instruction, the letter said that the direction of reduction in speed has also been approved by the Railway Board’s Member, Infra; Member, Traction and Rolling Stock; and Member, Operation and Business Development.

“The Board took the decision on its own in the wake of the recent Kanchanjunga Express accident in West Bengal in which a goods train hit the passenger train from the rear killing 10 people including the freight train’s driver,” a source in the Board told PTI, adding that the speed restriction has been in operation since June 25.

The letter specifically mentions three trains – train number 20171/20172 (New Delhi-Rani Kamalapati Vande Bharat Express), 22470/22469 (Hazrat Nizamuddin-Khajuraho Vande Bharat Express) and train number 12049/12050 (New Delhi-Virangana Lakshmibai Jhansi Gatiman Express).

Gatiman is India’s first semi-high speed train launched in April 2016 which runs between Nizamuddin and Jhansi but it takes 160 kmph speed only between Tughlakabad railway station and Agra as tracks were laid there to suit the train’s speed.

“On June 22, 2024, five days after the Kanchanjunga Express accident on June 17, the crew of Gatiman was instructed by the control department to reduce the speed from 160 to 140 and then two days later, the Railway Board’s direction came,” a railway source from Delhi Rail Division said.

“Vande Bharat runs at 130 kmph across all rail networks except this New-Delhi Agra route as it gets a suitable track to go up to 160,” another railway source said.

He added, “The distance between Nizamuddin and Agra is 188 km and out of that about 125 km stretch is such where trains can run at a maximum speed of 160 kmph. At remaining stretches, its speed varies but remains below 130. Vande Bharat and Gatiman had almost a similar speed graph until the Railway Board’s new direction came to decrease the speed to 130.” According to the railway sources, the Agra division is already working on ‘Kavach’ installation and it has developed a complete ‘Kavach’ network on the 80-km stretch between Mathura (excluding the station) and Palwal.

This involves the placement of RFID tags on railway tracks in station areas and other places, installation of stationary ‘Kavach’ units at several places such as stations, and installation of towers and antennas along the tracks.

“This installation is only for the purpose of trial and it is not being used in train operations as of now. It can be made operational as and when the concerned authorities decide,” a loco pilot, working on that route, said.

The Kavach system, developed by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), can apply brakes automatically in case of an emergency when a train driver fails to act in time. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Video of a new version of the popular Vande Bharat train is going viral on social media. It shows the train in Solapur, on its way to Mumbai. Though Indian Railways has not assigned any name to the new series of train, social media users are calling

Here are five points on the new train:

New Delhi:

Vande Bharat services are expected to be introduced in Srinagar within this financial year after the Jammu-Srinagar line becomes functional, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said here on Thursday.

He said the semi-high speed train will also serve the people of Tripura once the railway line to the northeastern state gets electrified.

The government plans to roll out 75 Vande Bharat trains by March next year and is also keen to run sleeper versions of the trains on long-distance routes as an alternative to Rajdhani Express trains.

“Once the Jammu to Srinagar railway line is completed very soon Vande Bharat will also be run on that,” Vaishnaw told PTI.

He said the Jammu-Srinagar railway line is expected to start within this financial year.

This train has been designed in a unique way so that they run very smoothly in those temperatures and altitude, Vaishnaw said.

According to a survey, Vande Bharat express trains have been popular amongst the youth and senior citizens alike for comfort and speed.

“In Tripura, the railway line will get electrified shortly, then we will be able to provide Vande Bharat services to Tripura,” Vaishnaw said.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken personal interest in the development of the northeastern region and Jammu and Kashmir where railway services were being expanded in a big way. 

New Delhi:

The Indian Railway is introducing the ’14 minutes of miracle’ concept for speedy cleaning of trains from October 1, starting with 29 Vande Bharat trains at their respective destination stations across the country.

It will be formally launched by the Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at the Delhi Cantt. Railway Station.

Mr Vaishnaw told reporters that the Vande Bharat trains will be cleaned within 14 minutes under the initiative to improve their punctuality and turnaround time.

“It is a unique concept and happening for the first time in the Indian railways,” the minister said.

The initiative is based on the concept of ‘7 minutes of miracle’ at various stations such as Osaka, Tokyo in Japan where bullet trains are cleaned and made ready for another journey within seven minutes.

The service has been made possible by enhancing the cleaning persons’ efficiency, skills and working attitude without increasing the number of front-line workforce already engaged in this activity, the minister said.

Besides Delhi Cantt, some of the other railway stations where it will be started are Varanasi, Gandhinagar, Mysore and Nagpur, depending on the respective arrival timings of the Vande Bharat trains.

Before launching this concept, the Railways carried out a couple of dry-runs where the attendants cleaned the train first in around 28 minutes and then improved it to 18 minutes. “Now it will take only 14 minutes without involving any new technology,” the minister said.

“Starting from Vande Bharat, we will apply the same concept in other trains slowly and gradually which will have a huge impact on improving their punctuality,” the minister said.

The Indian Railway launched a fortnight-long cleanliness drive – Swachhata-Hi-Seva campaign – in September in which the chairman and CEO of the Railway Board administered the Swachhata pledge to railway officials via video conferencing from the Rail Bhawan in New Delhi.

According to the railways, during the first 15 days of the SHS campaign, more than 2.19 lakh people participated in around 2050 activities involving 685,883 man-hours. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala:

Union Minister of State (MoS) V Muraleedharan and several Bharatiya Janata Party workers welcomed the Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram Vande Bharat Express train that reached the district’s Central Station late Sunday evening around 11 pm.

V Muraleedharan, while speaking to ANI, said that this is the first time in the history of Indian Railways that a train has become a celebrity.

“The second Vande Bharat allocated for Kerala which was inaugurated by PM Modi has travelled and reached Thiruvananthapuram. It has been a lifetime experience for everyone who travelled on this train. The thousands of people who gathered at various railway stations, thousands of people including school children who travelled in the train, every one of them told me how they loved, how they cherished the travel. There were thousands of people who were taking selfies with the train…Perhaps this is the first time in the history of India, in the history of Indian Railways that a train has become a celebrity,” he said.

The second semi-high-speed train of Kerala was among the nine Vande Bharat Express, which were flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.

People welcomed the Vande Bharat on its arrival at the Thiruvananthapuram Central Station by clicking pictures and showering flower petals.

“I must thank the Prime Minister for providing this world-class facility to the state of Kerala,” added V Muraleedharan.

The train will operate six days a week except Tuesday from Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram up and down. It will take 8 hours and 5 minutes to reach its destination. The second train dedicated to the state will be operated via the Alappuzha route while the first Vande Bharat is being operated via Kottayam.

Apart from Kasargod-Thiruvananthapuram, the other new trains flagged off on Sunday, are Udaipur-Jaipur Vande Bharat Express, Tirunelveli-Madurai-Chennai Vande Bharat Express, Hyderabad-Bengaluru Vande Bharat Express, Vijayawada-Chennai (via Renigunta) Vande Bharat Express, Patna-Howrah Vande Bharat Express, Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Puri Vande Bharat Express, Ranchi-Howrah Vande Bharat Express and Jamnagar-Ahmedabad Vande Bharat Express.

The Vande Bharat train is an initiative of the government under PM Modi’s vision of ‘Make in India’.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)