As of now, the halts of passenger and express trains are very much politically motivated. Often we have seen how a newly elected leader comes in, and the first thing he/she does is announce a new halt for an important train to make the voters happy.
But soon, this will change.
As per news coming in, Indian Railways will now reduce the number of halts and stoppages of trains, both express and passenger.
Find out how this will help the passengers?
Indian Railways Will Reduce Halts
As per reports coming in, Indian Railways will soon introduce ‘zero-based’ timetable, which will imply that there will be fewer halts of trains.
Both passenger trains and express trains will be covered, and their halts will be reduced.
As per V K Yadav, Railway Board Chairman, this plan of Indian Railways to reduce the number of halts was proposed earlier, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the execution was delayed.
But soon, once the trains under normal schedule starts, a new ‘zero-based’ timetable will be launched, which will have less number of halts.
How Will This Help The Passengers?
By reducing the number of halts, trains can run non-stop for longer duration of time.
This will mean that trains won’t be running late, and punctuality will increase.
Besides, trains will take less time to reach their destination, if halts and stoppages are stopped. Even if a train stops for 2 minutes, around 8-10 minutes are wasted, which delays the overall schedule of that train, and also the trains coming in from behind.
And incase the line is not clear, and then those 2 minutes of harmless halt can sometimes extend to cruel 30-40 minutes!
How Will This Work Out?
We don’t have the exact details of this plan, but it seems that halts for those locations where less passengers get down or board, will be now based on a weekly basis, or alternate days.
Railways is right now analysing which halts of the express and passenger trains have minimum activity, and based on that, the decision will be taken.
Hence, say there is a station called Rampur, where 20 express trains stop daily, but only 30-50 passengers board or get down on an average. In this case, the halts won’t be daily, but on a weekly basis, or alternate days.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.