In a major technical decision to deal with punctuality issue due to deceleration of trains while passing railway station and curves, the Indian Railways has decided to opt for world standards that allow passenger trains to cross stations, halts, loop lines, turnouts and curvatures at over 50 kilometre per hour. At present the speed limit in such cases in 15 km per hour.
For instance, a passenger train starting from New Delhi Railway Station which does not has a stoppage at Hazrat Nizamuddin Station needs to slow down to 15 kmph while crossing the stretch. But after the new technicalities approved by Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) comes in force, the train can continue with its top accelerated speed thus not losing time soon after it started its journey from New Delhi.
Following the worst ever punctuality figures during the last several months, Railway Board has taken several steps which include two significant ones related to speed of the trains. last month, the Board allowed train pilots to accelerate to the top permissible limit to make up for the loss, if any. The second decision was to seek approval from RDSO to maximise speed at curves and station crossings.
RDSO, a Central Government organisation, through a letter August 29, 2018, approved the Railway Board’s demand for increasing the speed over turnouts and loop lines to 50 kmph subjected to certain additions/modifications and corrections of the infrastructures wherever required.
“Up-gradation of speed to 50 kmph on turnout and loop lines should cover a number of contiguous stations at a stretch so as to derive a perceptible advantage of the higher speed in train operation,” said
RDSO Director General M Hussain in his approval sanction to railway board.
However, the RDSO has instructed the railways that before the introduction of the new speed manual, screenings of thick web curved switches over pre-stressed concrete (PSC) sleepers, curves with 150mm clean ballast cushion, all rail joints on these turnouts and other technicalities should be done and duly inspected
Further, it suggested that layouts of each and every turnout and cross-overs where the 50 kmph speed is proposed, including versines over turn-in curves, has to be checked for correct laying or geometrical defects in layout and be rectified before approaching the Commissioner for Rail Safety (CRS) who finally permits speed.
last month, the Railway Ministry directed train drivers to hit the top permissible speed to make up for the lost travel time. The punctuality performance of Indian Railways in 2017-18 was worse in comparison to the two financial years before that, with almost 30 per cent of its trains running late.
The punctuality of mail and express trains during April 2017-March 2018 was 71.39 per cent as compared to 76.69 per cent in the corresponding period of 2016-2017, which is a deterioration of 5.30 per cent. In 2015-2016, 77.44 per cent trains ran on time.