Hyderabad: Indian Railways has successfully operated two long haul freight trains 'Trishul' and 'Garuda' for the first time over South Central Railways (SCR), which are twice or multiple times longer than the normal composition of freight trains, which provide a very effective solution to the problem of capacity constraints in critical sections.
'Trishul' is the South Central Railway's first long haul comprising three freight trains, i.e., 177 wagons. This train was started on October 7 from Kondapalli Station of Vijayawada Division to Khurda Division of East Coast Railway. The South Central Railway followed it up with the running of yet another similar one named 'Garuda' on October 8 from Raichur of Guntakal Division to Manuguru of Secunderabad Division. In both cases, the long haul trains comprised empty open wagons for loading of coal meant for predominantly thermal power stations.
South Central Railway is one of the five major freight loading railways and the bulk of SCR’s freight traffic moves in certain arterial routes such as Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada-Gudur-Renigunta, Ballarshah-Kazipet-Vijayawada, Kazipet-Secunderabad-Wadi, Vijayawada-Guntur-Guntakal sections. As the bulk of its freight traffic has to pass through these major routes, it is essential for South Central Railway to maximise throughput available across these critical sections.
Saving paths across congested routes, quicker transit time, maximising the throughput of critical sections, saving in crews are the major operational benefits of running long haul trains, which help Indian Railways serve its freight customers better, according to Indian Railways.
Also read: Indian Railways registers record freight of 110.55 mn tonnes in August
