East Central Railway (ECR) Initiative! Now, trains won't depart late for lack of rakes

The East Central Railway (ECR) has decided to streamline the running of long-distance mail and express trains originating from its five divisions. This step is being taken at the directive of ECR GM Madhuresh Kumar who reviewed the punctuality of mail and express trains from the zone recently.

For the purpose, the ECR intends to introduce a system to standardize the rakes of different trains. To start with, the new system is being introduced in the Danapur rail division from September 15 this year, said ECR's chief public relations officer (CPRO) Amitabh Prabhakar.

According to Prabhakar, the railways is running most of the mail and express trains with the load combination of 22 to 24 coaches which include AC1, AC2, AC3, sleeper, general bogies, brake vans and pantry car. Under the new system, the uniformity of load combination would be maintained in each mail and express train. The standardization would help railways run the rake of any mail or express train as a particular train even if that particular train's incoming journey has been delayed.

For instance, if Archana Express's Jammu Tawi-Patna run is delayed, its Patna-Jammu Tawi run that day won't be delayed just because the rake was not available due to non-arrival of Jammu Tawi-Patna Archana Express.

The CPRO said ECR often receives late long-distance mail and express trains from other zones of railways. Maintenance work of the coaches takes four to five hours. The railways cannot as of now run other rakes due to differences in load combination of different rakes. "Now that the load combination of coaches will remain same for all the trains, we can run any rake as any train," he said.

To start with, the train with standardized rakes will include Rajendra Nagar Terminal-Lokmanya Tilak Express (13201-13202), Rajendra Nagar Terminal-Jammu Tawi Archana Express (12355-12356), Rajendra Nagar Terminal-Ajmer Ziyarat Express (12395-12396), Rajendra Nagar Terminal-New Tinsukiya Express (13281-13282) and Patna-Kota Express (132337-13238). The CPRO said each of these trains would now run with a load combination of 24 coaches which will include one AC1 and AC2 coach each, two AC3 coaches, 12 Sleeper coaches, five general coaches, two brake vans and one pantry car.

According to the CPRO, the ECR will introduce this system gradually in all the five divisions of the zone in a phased manner.