It's faster and cheaper: New Delhi-Mumbai Special Rajdhani Express flagged off

The Railways on Monday introduced a thrice-weekly faster Delhi-Mumbai Special Rajdhani Express service without flexi-fares from Hazrat Nizamuddin station here on an experimental basis.

The Special Rajdhani Express, which will cover a distance of 1,365 km in 13 hours 55 minutes instead of 15 hours 50 minutes, was flagged off at 4.15 pm.

The train will stop at Kota, Vadodara and Surat railway stations only and reach Bandra Terminus in Mumbai at 6.10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Before flagging off the Special Rajdhani Express, Railway Board Member (Traffic) Mohammad Jamshed inspected the food and catering facilities on board the train.

He also interacted with passengers to take their feedback. Jamshed was accompanied by railway officials, including Northern Railways General Manager.

According to railway officials, the new Special Rajdhani Express has been introduced on an experimental basis for three months to gauge the response of the public to a concept of a flat increase in fares against existing flexi-fare.

The Special Rajdhani Express train will comprise of 18 coaches including one first AC, two 2AC and twelve 3ACs and one pantry car. The train has been hauled by two WAP5 locomotives of 5,400 horsepower each to increase the maximum speed of the train to 130 kmph.

The fares would be 20 per cent more than the base fares for the existing New Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani without any flexi fare.

The fare for Special Rajdhani in 3rd AC and 2nd AC will be around 19 per cent cheaper than the maximum flexi fare of 3rd AC in Mumbai Rajdhani.

On September 9, 2016, Railways introduced flexi-fare for premier trains - Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi.

Under this, the base fare increases by 10 per cent with every 10 per cent of berths sold, subject to a prescribed limit. There was no change in the existing fare for 1AC and EC class of travel.

But on December 19, Railways started to provide 10 per cent rebate on any seat left vacant after the preparation of the chart.

The transporter already runs two Rajdhanis and more than 30 mail or express trains between the two metro cities.

The train will depart from Hazrat Nizamuddin on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays while it will leave Bandra Terminus on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 4.15 p.m. and reach Hazrat Nizamuddin at 6.10 a.m.