Railways to phase out Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto trains

19 Aug 2022 CW Team

Indian Railways has decided to phase out premium trains running across the country like the Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Duronto, etc and replace them with semi high-speed trains (160-240 kmph) like Vande Bharat and train sets.

The Railways claims that in the next two years, semi high-speed trains between Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata will start filling up, whereas the target is to connect other metros and big cities of the country in the Amrit period.

A senior Railway Ministry official said that the electricity, signalling system, track, and rolling stock (engine-coach) of Indian Railways will need to be completely replaced to run semi high-speed trains. To make rail travel fast, comfortable and safe, state-of-the-art technology in railroad facing and train operation will have to be implemented.

He said ICF and LHB coaches have become old technology now. Therefore, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto and Superfast trains will be replaced by Vande Bharat Express and train sets equipped with new state-of-the-art technology. The Railways will make 524 Vande Bharat and train sets.

The government will invest more than Rs 400 billion on the project. As many as 75 Vande Bharat trains will be ready on 15 August 2023. The existing two Vande Bharat trains are running at a speed of 160 kmph while the new Vande Bharat train will run at a speed of 180 kmph. After this, new versions of Vande Bharat with a maximum speed of 200, 220, 240 and 260 kmph will be made in a phased manner. With each new version, the speed, technical and rail passenger amenities of Vande Bharat trains will increase.

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