Pune Hyderabad Report: Where do we go from here?

My trip to Hyderabad last week was as good as any other long distance railway journey. I shall only highlight the striking observations I made during the trip.

I boarded the famous 7031 Dn Mumbai Hyderabad express at 16. 40 hrs. The rake was surprisingly dirtier than I had expected. The blue livery coaches were trodden and dusty with paint faded at multiple places. The train does not have a pantry and hence uses Kurduwadi as its base kitchen for picking dinner packets.

The good part was the Driver appeared extremely keen and enthusiastic. You can make it out easily form the way he accelerates and brakes the train. In effect we were 25 min ahead of schedule when we reached Kurduwadi. Solapur was 10 min. behind. The chief train conductor was extremely nice man and I spent a long time chatting with him on the way. I gather a broad smile to greet anybody makes a lot of difference.

The return journey was by 7002 Hussain Sagar Express. In effect both these trains need four independent rakes. The rake was almost equally dirty from outside. This train shares its rake with the 7031/7032 but I bet this was certainly not the same rake. This was powered by a WDM 2A from the Secundarabad shade.

With due respect to the WDM’s, I must say that WDM 2’s are grossly underpowered locos especially when they haul 18 coaches and over, which amounts to a total kerb weight of 850 to 900 tonnes. I tried to estimate the time required to achieve top speed (Presumably on a level track). According to my calculations, time required from the start to achieving top speeds (100kms.hr) was 4 min 40 sec. at best and 7 min and 10 sec. at the worst. This includes 2 to 2 and a half min for the last coach to clear the loop. This time would of course vary according to the length of the loop and other points the train has to clear. But even then this loco would take at least 2 min 40 sec. from the speeds of 15 km/hr to reach a top sped 100 kms/hr on a level track with 18 coaches to haul. Braking efficiency also gets severely

affected by the length of the loops. This makes these trains remarkably sluggish for movement.

Add to this the multiple halts for crossing on single line sections. In effect 7031 averages a miserable 45 kms an hour on a total haul of 790 kms. Hussein Sagar does a little better at 52.7 kms of average speed on the same section. Compare these figures with Golden Temple Mail that averages 64 kms/hr between Mumbai and New Delhi. These figures were not much different when the Frontier Mail was steam hauled.

Where do we go from here? IR ought to supply more powerful locos on all mainline Mail and Express Trains, which are now made up of 18 coaches at least. But that will only take care of the acceleration. What about the unscheduled halts these trains make at various points? Crossing halts are also a pain. Cattle crossing, suicides and needless chain pulling are some of the other problems.

The sad part is that our mainline trains are getting slower and slower due to a variety of reasons, while in the European countries, intercity travel is getting closer and closer to the air travel. That is anyway the chief motivating factor for the rapid improvement of rail service in Europe. We mainly boast about the cost of travel. However the cost by an AC 2 Tier is getting less and less competitive considering the present day price war amoung the private airlines in India.

That only leaves the charm of Indian Railways. This charm of course more than compensates for the all the shortcomings of the rail travel. What else do we look for? What else do we live for ?

Dr. Shirish Yande 14.11.2004