Twelve new express trains, including the Chennai
Central-Bangalore AC Double Decker Express, frequency upgrades of some services
and speeding up of 40 express trains are among the highlights of the new
timetable launched by Southern Railway here on Friday.
Many of the new trains have been allotted time-slots that take effect from July 1 – some leading to revised timings for other trains – though their actual date of introduction is to be notified later.
The 13-coach double decker express (daily)
connecting Chennai and Bangalore is the showpiece among the new services and is
likely to have much higher carrying capacity that popular trains like the
Shatabdi and Brindavan express.
According to a Railway official, though the exact
carriage capacity of the double decker coaches would be firmed up only later,
going by specifications set by the Research Design and Standards Organisation
of the Indian Railways, a double decker train would have a seating capacity of
128 persons per coach (74 seats in the lower deck and 54 in the upper deck).
This is approximately 70 per cent more than the seats on a coach of the
Shatabdi (78) or the Brindavan Express (73).
Train No.22625 Chennai Central- Bangalore AC Double
Decker Exp will leave here 7.25 a.m. and reach Bangalore
at 1.30 p.m. while Train No.22626 will leave Bangalore
Consequent on the introduction of the double
decker, Train No.12639 Chennai Central –Bangalore Brindavan Express will leave
45 minutes later (7.50 a.m. instead of 7.15 a.m.), while the return train to
Chennai, Train No.12640, will leave Bangalore 40 minutes later (3.10 p.m.
instead of 2.30 p.m.)
The new services include the weekly air-conditioned
superfast Bikaner-Coimbatore and the Yesvantpur-Kochuveli trains. The dates
would be introduced later.
Other newly introduced trains are the
Shalimar-Chennai Central (launched from June 24) and soon-to-be-introduced
Asansol-Chennai Central, Chennai Central-Puri weekly superfast express trains,
Tiruchi-Tirunelveli (day-time) Inter City daily, Tirunelveli-Dadar weekly,
Kacheguda-Madurai weekly, Tirupati-Mannargudi tr-weekly, the
Villupuram-Mayiladuthurai passenger and six Villupuram-Katpadi passenger
trains. The increase in frequency of services will apply to Chennai
Central-Mangalore express (Train Nos. 12685/686) that has been upgraded to
daily from six days a week, the Kochuveli-Bangalore express to tri-weekly from
bi-weekly (Train Nos. 16316/315), Kanyakumari-Nizammuddin Thirukkural express
to bi-weekly from weekly (12641/642) and Villupuram-Kharagpur express to
bi-weekly from weekly (22604/603).
MEMU services
The new MEMU services are the
Palakkad-Coimbatore-Erode daily train and the Thrissur-Ernakulam
six-days-a-week train.
Four passenger specials in the
Mannargudi-Tiruchi-Manamadurai-Thanjavur-Karaikudi sectors would become DEMU
class with eight coaches powered by two driving power cars and six trailer cars
with effect from July 1.
The ten trains that have been extended include the
Dehradun-Chennai weekly express to Madurai, Dadar-Yesvantpur to Puducherry on
three days of the week and to Tirunelveli on three other days, Tirupati-Madurai
bi-weekly to Rameswaram, the Mangalore-Palakkas Inter City Express to
Coimbatore, the Mangalore-Thiruvananthapuram Parasuram Express to Nagercoil,
Coimbatore-Erode MEMU to Salem, Velankanni-Nagore DEMU to Karaikal and the
Bangalore-Salem passenger to Nagore.
Trains speeded up
Among the trains that have been speeded up are
Kochuveli-Porbandar express, Rameswaram-Okha, Nizamuddin-Kanyakumari,
Thiruvananthapuram-Korba, Mumbai CST-Kanyakumari, Mumbai CST-Chennai Central,
Nagercoil-Gandhidham, Kacheguda-Chennai Egmore, Chennai Central-Mettupalayam
and Chennai Central-Mangalore West Coast express.
The Chennai Central-Mangalore express (16041/042),
Thiruvananthapuram-Mumbai CST (16332/331) and Puducherry-Mangalore weekly
(16043/044) will be diverted via Coimbatore
Source: The Hindu
