Indian Railways: New timings for 500 trains from Nov 1; know the details

Trains such as the Bhopal-Jodhpur Express will reach 95 minutes early: Indian Railways

Indian Railways has announced a new timetable for 500 long distance trains and local trains on Central Railway with effect from November 1, 2017. In a bid to cut down on the travel time of several long-distance trains by up to three hours, the Indian Railways will, reportedly, run sixty-five faster trains. Railways will also reduce the time of halt of trains at railway stations.

"Trains such as the Bhopal-Jodhpur Express will reach 95 minutes early while the Guwahati-Indore Special will complete its 2,330-km journey 115 minutes early and the 1929-km journey of the Ghazipur-Bandra Terminus Express will be completed 95 minutes earlier," Zee News reported.

In the new timetable, virtually every rail zone has trains that have been speeded up — for example, 65 trains on Northern Railway and 51 express and 36 passenger trains running under the Southern Railway have been speeded up while in East Coast Railway (ECoR) 37 express and 19 local passenger trains will run faster.

Here are the highlights

The Northern Railway timetable has three new trains for the sector - Tejas, Humsafar and Antyodaya Express

Tejas Express: Tejas is India's first semi-high speed, full-AC train. It will run six days a week between New Delhi and Chandigarh, and Lucknow and Anand Vihar.

Humsafar Express: Humsafar is three-tier AC sleeper train. It will run between Sealdah and Jammu Tawi once a week and tri-weekly between Anand Vihar and Allahabad.

Antyodaya Express: Antyodaya Express features all unreserved or general coaches. It will run between Darbhanga and Jalandhar, and Bilaspur and Ferozepur once a week.

Change in number of trains

115107/15108 Mathura-Chhapra express (tri-weekly) has been speeded up and converted into superfast with new number 22531/22532

214155/14156 Kanpur-Udhampur express (bi-weekly) has been speeded up and extended up to Allahabad with the new number as 24155/24156. Now the train has renumbered as 22431/22432.

454003/54004 Kosikalan-Nizamuddin passenger has been converted into MEMU with new number 64569/64570.

522693/22694 Bangalore-New Delhi Rajdhani Express (tri-weekly) has been merged in train number 22691/22692 (4 days) and made 22691/22692 daily.

611065/11066 Lokmany Tilak Term-Darbhanga Pawan express (tri-weekly) has been merged in train number 11061/11062 (4 days) and made 11061/11062 daily.

The timetable with the new features will be published in the railway publication, 'Trains at a Glance'.