Delhi Metro's Airport Express Line to have longer operating hours, better frequency

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will increase the frequency, speed and operating hours of the Airport Express Line from August 1.

The first train service from both the terminal stations viz. Dwarka Sector 21 and New Delhi will start at 4:45 a.m. instead of the present time of 5:30 a.m. at New Delhi and 5.15 AM at Dwarka Sector 21. The last train will, however, continue to depart from the New Delhi station at 11.30 p.m. and from Dwarka Sector 21 at 11.15 p.m..

This change in schedule will tremendously help the passengers of the Shatabdi Express trains which depart from the New Delhi railway station early in the morning and reach back late in the night.

Now, the Shatabdi Express passengers coming from the Airport or the nearby areas will be able to take the early morning services of the Airport link and reach the New Delhi railway station. Similarly, the passengers arriving by the train at New Delhi late in the night, with the intention of going to the airport will be able to take the last Airport link service from New Delhi. All Shatabdi Express trains reach New Delhi by latest 11.05 PM. However, the Airport Express services will wait for maximum15 more minutes up to 11.45 PM in case of any delay in these trains.

The frequency of the trains during peak hours will also be revised to 10 minutes and 30 seconds instead of the existing 15 minutes from the 1st of August. During off peak hours, it will remain 15 minutes as before. As a result, the daily train trips will increase to 180 from 146 at present.

The morning peak hours are from 7.30 a.m. to 12 noon while the evening peak hours are from 3 PM to 7.30 p.m The peak hours have been decided keeping in view the timings of the arrival and departure of flights at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (Terminal 3).

The operating speed of the trains on the Airport Express Line will also be increased to 80 km/ph from the existing 70 km/ph.

The changes have been made on the basis of the feedback received from the commuters of the line. After taking over the operations of the line from the 1st of July, 2013, DMRC had sought the feedback of the commuters in order to further improve the quality of the services.