INDIAN RAILWAYS TO STOP INTRODUCING MAIL/SF AS NEW TRAINS?
These days, there seems to be a trend that IR prefers to introduce only humsafars/ac exp as new trains, and there seems to be very few new trains introduced as express/sf trains. So does this mean IR will stop introducing conventional express trains altogether? I decided to do some fact checking analysis:
-I looked for new introduced trains between 1/10/2017 to today (24/3/2018) using IRI trains list. I compared no. of mail/exp/sf trains introduced vs. no. of 'luxury' trains. My definitions of luxury train...
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include AC exp, AC SF exp, HS trains, Tejas exp, Shatabdi and Rajdhani exp.
-For the sake of comparison, I didnt consider suvidha trains/tatkal spl, AC specials, pass/ fast pass trains, international trains, MEMU/DEMUs, and trains that were diverted or extended, Trains introduced with RSA are considered as single train.
-I found following things:
- Following new exp/SF/JS/antyodaya trains were intoduced in last ~6 months:
1. 19807/8 Kota JP exp
2. 14717/8 BKN Haridwar exp
3. 15611/2 GHY Silchar exp
4. 17245/6 DMM Machilipatnam exp
5. 22151/2 PUNE KZJ SF exp
6. 22987/8 AII Agra fort SF exp
7. 15564/5 Udhna Jaynagar antyodaya
8. 15125/6 PNBE Kashi Jan Shat. exp
- Comparing to no. of luxury trains introduced in last 6 months:
1. 20817/8 BBS-NDLS Rajdhani
2. 20501/2 Agartala-ANVT Rajdhani
3. 19667/8 Palace queen humsafar
4. 02412/3 Arunachal AC SF exp
5. 20601/2 MAS Madurai AC SF exp
-So this show that IR is still introducing conventional exp. But we can also see that nearly ask these trains are due to popular demand, not as election tactic/gimmick. But if we look at luxury train list, 2 of these trains, (Agartala RAJ and MYS UDZ HS) are introduced during election time.
- And about 40% new trains introduced in last 6 months are AC only luxury trains. As far as I know, this is much higher than the rate IR used to introduce rajdhanis/shatabdis in 90's or during 2000's. So we can definitely say that IR is introducing more and more AC trains.
-This is not very surpirsing in my opinion bcoz IR said somectime ago that only 3ac segment is very profitable for IR. So this move seems logical if IR wants to stay in business mainly due to stiff competition from cheap airlines. But does that mean sacrificing demands of people who can't affort ac travel??
request everyone to provide opinion/comments.
(All data taken from IRI train search).