Mumbai, 19 September(Wishav Warta): The railways will introduce within a month a brand new, and faster, Rajdhani Express on the Mumbai-Delhi route, the third Rajdhani train on the route, senior officials said yesterday.
The train, likely to be launched by Diwali, will cover the distance between Bandra and Nizamuddin in 13 hours. Presently, the route is served by two Rajdhani Express trains -the August Kranti Rajdhani and the Mumbai Central New Delhi Rajdhani.
Both of them take more than 15 hours to cover the distance between India’s financial capital and the national capital. While the August Kranti Rajdhani takes around 17 hours to travel a distance of 1,377 km at an average speed of 80 kmph, the Mumbai Central-New Delhi (or just Mumbai Rajdhani as it is commonly called) train takes around 15 hours, 35 minutes, at an average speed of 89 kmph, to travel 1386 km.
Neither of the two halts at Bandra. “The trial run for the new train will start in a couple of days. We are using the existing 24 coach Mumbai Rajdhani with two engines to see if we can make the journey shorter by a few hours. We are using Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches,” a senior railway official. Alternatively, sources indicate, the railways could introduce the new Rajdhani with 14 coaches and one engine to ramp up the speed, and then determine which of the two is the better option.
LHB coaches are of a superior design that reduces the chance of derailment and mitigates the possibility of grievous injury or death in case of accidents. These coaches have anti-climbing features and provision of superior braking.
