Indian Railways to convert passenger trains into express trains

The Indian Railways has decided to convert 502 passengers trains, that run beyond 200 km, into express trains by speeding them up and reducing number of halts.

The Railway Board in its circular to Zonal Railways sent a list of trains that needs to be sped up and curtail halts if required. The action taken should be advised by 4 pm on Friday, the Board said.

Earlier, the railways advised the zones to introduce 'Zero Timetable’ from July 1 wherein trains with poor occupancy will be cancelled and scrap commercially unviable halts.

However, there is apprehension among passengers that this would hit large number of poor and marginal class as they depend on passengers trains for daily commute.

The railway official said the decision to increase the speed of the trains by curtailing stops is mainly due to low passenger occupancy and commercially unviable halts.

They also said even after converting passenger trains that runs more than 200 km as express trains, passengers still give less money for travel in trains compared to other modes of transport.

This year the railways earning took a severe hit due to halting of train services for nationwide lockdown since March 23. Though freight trains operated during lockdown for movement of essential commodities, its earning witnessed huge decline due to economic slowdown. At present only 100 pair regular trains and 15 pair of special Rajdhani trains are being operated.