Now, A train with 120 wagons
To further boost their freight business and optimise utilisation of tracks, railways combine two goods trains. This empty train will reach Gandhidham and split into two trains to offload goods at destination stations
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Thursday, October 07, 2010 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=3&contentid=20101007201010070338595065a707f5b)
An out-of-the-box idea by the Western Railway could boost its freight earnings tremendously, ensuring optimum use of the tracks and speedy delivery of goods besides saving on fuel. For the past one month, goods trains heading from Sabarmati to Gandhidham to load freight items are running with 120 wagons instead of the usual 40-60 wagons.
Earlier, nine to 12 empty goods trains, each with 40-60 wagons, used to run from Sabarmati to Gandhidham. Now, three to four such empty freight trains, each carrying 120 wagons, leave for Gandhidham — this section mainly covers Kandla and Mundra ports and fetches maximum revenue for Western Railway.
While this means commuters will have to wait longer at the railway crossings now, it will help the railways cope better with shortage of staff, congestion on rail routes and increasing demand for fuel. Apart from the main engine that will pull the 120 empty wagons, a defunct engine will also be attached to them. After reaching Gandhidham, the single train will split into two trains.
And how? The defunct engine will be activated and 60 of the 120 wagons will be attached to it. These two trains will then leave for their destinations with the supply of goods and return to Sabarmati station empty.
Ahmedabad’s Divisional Railway Manager Ashok Garud said: “Combining two empty trains will help us cater to the ever increasing freight business in a very effective manner. It will also help us deal with congestion on tracks besides helping us save on fuel and ensuring timely delivery of supplies.”
This will be a non-stop train, the reason being that the Gandhidham-Viramgam route is a single track. So only after the goods train passes by, will a passenger train get the signal to run on the track. Western Railway has performed remarkably well in freight earnings.
In September 2010 it was Rs 462.20 crore, which is 23 per cent more than last year’s earnings of Rs 375.49 crore. The freight earning for the current financial period up to September was Rs 2,769 crore which is an increase of almost 10 percent over last year’s.
During September 2010, Western Railway loaded 877 wagons of fertilizers per day as against 669 wagons per day in the corresponding month in 2009. Similarly, there has been an increase of 14 per cent in the loading of petroleum products.
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Thursday, October 07, 2010 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20City§id=3&contentid=20101007201010070338595065a707f5b)
An out-of-the-box idea by the Western Railway could boost its freight earnings tremendously, ensuring optimum use of the tracks and speedy delivery of goods besides saving on fuel. For the past one month, goods trains heading from Sabarmati to Gandhidham to load freight items are running with 120 wagons instead of the usual 40-60 wagons.
Earlier, nine to 12 empty goods trains, each with 40-60 wagons, used to run from Sabarmati to Gandhidham. Now, three to four such empty freight trains, each carrying 120 wagons, leave for Gandhidham — this section mainly covers Kandla and Mundra ports and fetches maximum revenue for Western Railway.
While this means commuters will have to wait longer at the railway crossings now, it will help the railways cope better with shortage of staff, congestion on rail routes and increasing demand for fuel. Apart from the main engine that will pull the 120 empty wagons, a defunct engine will also be attached to them. After reaching Gandhidham, the single train will split into two trains.
And how? The defunct engine will be activated and 60 of the 120 wagons will be attached to it. These two trains will then leave for their destinations with the supply of goods and return to Sabarmati station empty.
Ahmedabad’s Divisional Railway Manager Ashok Garud said: “Combining two empty trains will help us cater to the ever increasing freight business in a very effective manner. It will also help us deal with congestion on tracks besides helping us save on fuel and ensuring timely delivery of supplies.”
This will be a non-stop train, the reason being that the Gandhidham-Viramgam route is a single track. So only after the goods train passes by, will a passenger train get the signal to run on the track. Western Railway has performed remarkably well in freight earnings.
In September 2010 it was Rs 462.20 crore, which is 23 per cent more than last year’s earnings of Rs 375.49 crore. The freight earning for the current financial period up to September was Rs 2,769 crore which is an increase of almost 10 percent over last year’s.
During September 2010, Western Railway loaded 877 wagons of fertilizers per day as against 669 wagons per day in the corresponding month in 2009. Similarly, there has been an increase of 14 per cent in the loading of petroleum products.
