The Hindu Business Line : Rly board proposes to increase speed limits of freight trains

THE Railway Board is mulling increasing the maximum permissible speed limit of the freight trains to 100 km per hour from the present 75 km on the main trunk routes connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and also the diagonal routes such as Kolkata-Mumbai and Delhi-Chennai. These six routes together covering about 10,000 km out of the total Railway network of 66,000 km account for nearly 75 per cent of the total traffic of the Railways, both freight and passenger.

The Expert Group of the RITES (Rail India Technical & Economic Serives), currently examining the scope of increasing the maximum speed limit of freight trains along these corridors at the behest of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, is yet to firm up its views of the relevant issues. However, the preliminary findings not only endorse the Railway Board's plan but firmly support it describing it as dire necessity.

If the maximum permissible speed limit of a freight train along these corridors is enhanced to 100 km per hour then the average speed will come to about 55 km against the present range of 40 to 44 km. As a result, more trains can be run on these routes and it will thus be possible to achieve at least 20 per cent increase in productivity without substantial investment.

The most obvious question that arises in this context is: whether the present railway tracks are strong enough to support such high-speed freight trains. The answer is yes, according to the Expert Group. The super fast passenger trains such as Rajdhani Express and Shatabdi Express already run along these corridors with the maximum speed limit of 130/140 km per hour and average speed ranging between 75 and 85 km per hour. There are nearly 200 super fast trains out of a total of 1300 express trains. Since average load of a freight train is more than that of a passenger train, certain bridges may have to be strengthened on the routes. The tensile strength has to be 90.

While not much of a problem is foreseen in regard to tracks and locomotives, the concern remains in regard to wagons. The wagons may have to be modified - existing air-brakes have to undergo retrofitment of undergear, it is pointed out.

There have been demands from trade and industry for quite some time for separate freight corridors exclusively for running of fast freight trains. While the prospects of such corridors do not appear to be very bright at least in foreseeable future, one thing is certain: the present practice of always according priority to passenger trains over freight trains may be abandoned; instead, high-speed freight trains may also be given priority over many passenger trains.