(ET)
Indian Railways will try and double the average speed of freight trains and increase the average speed of passenger trains by 25 km per hour over a five year period, railways minister Piyush Goyal has said. Average speed of freight trains is 24 km per hour whereas passenger trains run at 44 km per hour.
“We’re working towards increasing the speed of trains and creating more capacity. Punctuality is another thing we are working on. There’s massive safety related works going on which has hit the punctuality,” Goyal told reporters on Wednesday. “We’re also working towards doubling the capacity on the busiest routes.”
The minister said investment in railways under the Narendra Modi government has increased by three times. “The number of accidents have come down substantially because of the investment in safety,” Goyal said. The national transporter has identified routes such as Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Howrah, Mumbai-Howrah, Chennai-Bengaluru and Chennai-Mumbai to increase the speed of trains in first phase.
