The Ministry of Railways recently unveiled its updated All India Railway Time Table, also known as 'Trains at a Glance' (TAG), which came into effect from October 1. Under the new timetable, around 500 Mail Express trains were sped up from 10 minutes to 70 minutes. The ministry also upgraded 130 services (65 pairs) to the 'superfast' categories.
“Overall, the average speed of all trains has increased by around 5 percent, leading to availability of nearly 5 percent additional paths for operation of more trains," the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry also reported that the punctuality of the Mail Express trains has improved by 9 percent more than the achieved targets in 2019-20. Meanwhile, the punctuality of Indian Railways for Mail Express trains in 2022-23 is around 84 percent.
Indian Railways added a total of 106 new services and extended 212 services. The frequency of 24 services was increased as well. The Railways also added a total of 566 coaches to increase the carrying capacity of the Indian railways between 2021-2022.
The ministry has also planned to introduce corridor blocks to give enough time for infrastructure maintenance. “To provide sufficient time for the maintenance of the fixed infrastructure such as track structure, signaling gears, overhead equipment, it has been planned to ensure provision of fixed corridor blocks. The duration of these corridors blocks will be from 3 hours in each section. This will not only improve the reliability of the assets but also enhance passenger safety,” the ministry said.
Indian Railways operates 3,240 Mail/Express along with 3,000 passenger trains and 5,660 suburban trains. The Express trains included lines such as the Vande Bharat Express, Gatimaan Express, Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Humsaafar Express, Tejas Express, Duronto Express, and more. The Indian Railways also ferries around 2.23 crore individuals daily.
The timetable can be downloaded in an e-book format from the IRCTC website.
