The Railway Board has reduced the speed of semi-high speed trains Gatimaan Express and Vande Bharat from 160 kmph to 130 kmph till the automatic train protection system gets operational.
The first semi-high speed service of the Railways is being considered a boon for tourists visiting the city of Taj Mahal.
On the fifth day of the trial, the train covered 84 km in 38 minutes between Mathura and Palwal.
The focus is now on having premium service to give passenger comfort and increasing train speeds.
Gatimaan's record speed of 160 km per hour (kph) would be a marginal improvement over the maximum 150 kph clocked currently by Bhopal Shatabdi on the same route.
Rashme Sehgal took a ride on the Gatimaan Express for you.
"We have firmed up an action plan to increase the train speed to up to 160 km per hour on the total 9000-km main trunk routes across the country as part of the Mission Raftaar project. To begin with we have started the work on two major busy routes of Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah," said a senior Railway Ministry official involved with the project.
Next phase of trial will be conducted on Delhi-Mumbai route
Though there was no fare hike proposal in the Rail Budget this time, passengers will have to cough up more for travelling on new trains with added facilities in the coming days.
Trial runs of this train are being conducted.
Talgo's arrival in India marks the beginning faster and efficient train services.
As of now, the Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani Express runs at an average speed of 85 km per hour.
After the trial run on the Bareilly-Moradabad line, it will be tried on Rajdhani route between Mathura and Palwal for 40 days with speed up to 180 km per hour.
Talgo's Series 9 locomotive to cut Delhi-Mumbai travel time to 12 hours
A railway official said the Talgo run was only a trial and, in case of launch of commercial services, clearance from CRS would be taken
The train with nine lightweight coaches will start its journey at 7.55 PM from New Delhi station and is expected to reach Mumbai at about 8.31 AM in the morning
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances