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Faster trains soon! Indian Railways to replace slow-moving passenger trains on Golden Quadrilateral with MEMUs

Faster trains soon! Indian Railways to replace slow-moving passenger trains on Golden Quadrilateral with MEMUs

Monday, January 21, 2019 IST

Indian Railways to go for game-changing faster trains! By March 2020, your experience of travelling on Indian Railways trains is set to undergo a major upgrade with plans to replace slow-moving passenger trains with self-propelled train sets. Financial Express Online learns that Indian Railways will, over the next financial year, replace all slow-moving passenger trains on the Golden Quadrilateral with faster MEMU train sets. MEMUs or Mainline Electric Multiple Unit trains are usually used for short distances by Indian Railways. According to Rajesh Agrawal, Member Rolling Stock, as many as 1,200 coaches will be replaced with inter-city regional transit train sets. “We are planning to replace 1,200 coaches, that would be roughly 65 rakes or 200 train services with self-propelled MEMUs to decongest the Golden Quadrilateral,” Rajesh Agrawal told Financial Express Online.

The new MEMU trains will serve distances of 300 to 500 kilometres attaining speeds of 100 kmph. Unlike regular trains, MEMU train sets require maintenance only once in every 10-15 days. This would help Indian Railways save on maintenance cost and would also reduce the layover time of the trains. The main advantage of MEMU trains is that they allow for faster acceleration and deceleration. “The Golden Quadrilateral is congested and faster movement of trains is the need of the hour. The next-generation MEMU train sets that Indian Railways is manufacturing can speed up and slow down faster, reducing the overall time taken to travel,” Agrawal said. The five-year plan is to manufacture 6,000 new MEMU coaches to completely eliminate congestion from major routes.

Watch now! Train 18-like MEMU train unveiled! Indian Railways new train for short distance travel

Recently, the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai rolled out a Train 18-like MEMU will all its equipment underslung, making space for more passengers onboard. Asked whether the new MEMUs will be “little sisters” of Train 18, a railway official told Financial Express Online that eventually, the production would shift to this type of train set. “All rail coach factories, ICF, RCF and MCF will need time to shift production of MEMUs to the underslung Train 18-type, but over the year the shift will happen.”

Slow-moving passenger trains usually serve the crucial purpose of connecting with major stations will smaller ones. The unreserved trains, owing to their lower fares, are a popular alternative for railway passengers who cannot afford tariffs of premium trains. The speed of these trains ranges goes up to 40 kmph, given the fact that they don’t get priority clearance on the congested railway network. The new MEMUs will be able to attain 100 kmph, hopes Indian Railways, with the potential to go up to 160 kmph once the network clears.