The average speed of the goods trains has been increased in areas under the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).
Stating that in the Northeast Frontier Railway area, the average speed of goods trains is continuously on the rise, the NFR CPRO said: “The monthly average speed of goods trains up to September 13, 2020 increased from 27.21 kmph to 47.83 kmph over the same period of last year.”
“That is an increase of more than 75%. On September 13, 2020, the average speed of freight trains was 45.37 kmph against 27.47 kmph on September 13, 2019. That is an increase of 65%,” the NFR chief public relations officer (CPRO) said in a statement.
An increase in the average speed of goods train minimizes the turnaround time of the wagons thereby enabling Railways to maximize the use of the wagons which is necessary to carry essential commodities to every part of North Eastern states in view of the present COVID-19 scenario in India, he added.
With proper planning, NFR has converted the unprecedented lockdown period into an opportunity to speed up maintenance work ever since regular passenger trains stopped plying throughout the country, Chanda said.
The lockdown period provided some time gaps to take up track and other maintenance work, although freight carrying trains as well as parcel trains are running regularly with essentials items 24×7 and there were restrictions on the movement of men and material due to lockdown in the entire country.
All these works were done with detailed planning and continuous monitoring maintaining all COVID19 related health protocols (e.g. social distancing, etc.) despite an increase in the movement of parcel trains and freight trains during the lockdown period, Chanda informed.
It was found that emphasis is given on maintenance of assets leads to a substantial increase in asset reliability decreasing asset failures and thereby increasing the average speed of freight-carrying trains due to fewer detentions and speed restrictions.
The increased average speed, resulting from the elimination of detentions and speed restrictions due to asset failures, also contributes to energy conservation by decreasing fuel consumption, Chanda said.
The official informed that over 4000 freight carrying and more than 1000 parcel trains movements were done by NFR during the pandemic period up to September 13 to ensure that there is no scarcity of essential and other commodities within its jurisdiction.