1 in 4 superfast trains runs below threshold speed, says House panel

A parliamentary panel has flagged that about 25 per cent of superfast trains run below the prescribed speed threshold but continue to levy higher fares, urging a review of speed and punctuality benchm

Taking note of the slowing average speed of trains on the Indian Railways network, the parliamentary public accounts committee has pulled up the rail ministry. The panel found around 25 per cent of the trains charge ‘superfast’ fare without adhering to the threshold required to be categorised as such. 

“Audit has pointed that out of 478 superfast trains of Indian Railways, the scheduled speed of 123 superfast trains was less than 55 kilometres per hour (kmph),” the committee, chaired by Congress leader KC Venugopal, said in its report. 

The ministry stated in response that 40 of these 123 identified trains are running at an average speed of over 55 kmph, while seven operate in the Konkan railway zone, which has a different calculation system, according to the intergrated coaching management system (ICMS) data. In case of the remaining trains, the charting was done in line with the criteria fixed for superfast trains and were operating well beyond 55 kmph speed when they were introduced, the railways said. 

 

However, due to addition of stoppages after the commencement of regular operation of these trains, the average speed of a few of them had been affected, it added. “The committee was forced to conclude that the demarcation of trains as superfast was to apply higher charges. As and when the speed of trains fell below, Indian Railways should have removed the train from superfast category and revised the fare,” the panel said. 

The committee has also questioned the criteria of designating a train as superfast itself. In 2007, the Railways had decided that if the average speed of a train, in both Up and Down directions, is a minimum of 55 kmph on broad gauge and 45 kmph on metre gauge, it would be treated as superfast. 

The panel observed that the benchmark of 55 kmph for classifying a train as superfast is itself low, especially when East Asian countries such as China and Japan operate trains at speeds far beyond India’s speed benchmarks. 

“The committee recommend the ministry to review and rationalise the criteria for categorising the trains as ‘superfast’ comparable with global standards approximating to 100 kmph and explore the feasibility of achieving a consistent speed of 100 kmph not just at the terminating point, but throughout the entire journey, from the originating station, through intermediate stops, and up to the terminating point, by 2030,” it added. 

The panel also criticised the Railways for charging full fare for tickets under reservation against cancellation (RAC), in which the ticket holder continues in the RAC category after chart preparation without berth facility. It suggested that the ministry should devise a mechanism to refund partial fare to the customer or traveller who could not get a full berth but had to pay the full fare. 

The committee also said that the ministry has not been following global benchmarks while deciding on what constitutes punctuality, citing examples of countries such as Japan, where the threshold is in seconds, or other countries where the threshold is much lower. 

“Despite a low benchmark and higher threshold of 15 minutes, the punctuality of mail and express trains over Indian Railways declined from 79 per cent (2012-13) to 69.23 per cent (2018-19) and that too at the terminating stations only,” it said. The punctuality performance of Railways in 2024-25 was recorded at 78.67 per cent up to August, as compared to 73.62 per cent recorded in 2023-24.