NEW DELHI, July 21: Speeding up of express trains, including Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express services, is a constant endeavour and Railways has always been committed to provide better speed and safety features in its trains.
The speed of trains operating on Railways, including those of Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express services are dependent inter-alia on factors such as maximum permissible speed of the section, type of coaches, capacity utilisation of sections en-route, signalling and interlocking systems.
At present, all the Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express services are being operated at the maximum permissible speeds of the sections en-route, official sources here said.
In its drive to provide more comfortable and safer journeys to the traveling passengers, Railways operate almost all Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express services with Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) rakes which have better speed potential and safety features.
The superior design of LHB rakes provides enhanced safety in case of derailment or accidents. Besides, systems are in place to ensure that train coaches are given stipulated maintenance schedules and unsafe coaches are not allowed in passenger train service.
Railways are Implementing Automatic Train Protection (ATP) Systems in selected sections. These systems have the facility of displaying movement authority in front of the Loco Pilot in the cab, they said.
This helps Loco Pilot to run the train confidently even during impaired visibility.
The types of ATP systems working and those in- progress are : Train Protection and Warning System: Train Protection and Warning System(TPWS) based on European Technology ETCS Level-1 has been provided on 345 RKMs (Route Kilo Meters) on Railways.
An ATP called Auxiliary Warning System (AWS) is presently functional on 413 RKMs in the Mumbai suburban sections of Central Railway (289 RKMs) and Western Railway (124RKMS).
Another such system is TCAS, which is an Automatic Train Protection System being developed in association with three Indian manufacturers. The system has been installed on Lingampalli-Vikrabad-Wadi, Vikrabad-Bidar section (250 RKMs) on SCR.
Product of all the three firms has been approved by RDSO for developmental orders for speeds up to 110 kmph in Absolute Block Sections.
(UNI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
