Is Duranto Express train not patronized by passengers?
“Will Indian Railways put the brakes on Mamata Banerjee’s dream” is the headlines of a news
New Delhi: The Duronto trains, widely seen as one of the legacies of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her stint as railway minister, may be discontinued, a report said on Tuesday. Introduced by Banerjee despite opposition, the Railways have over 60 Duronto trains. However, in a bid to prevent financial situation from going out of hand, the Railways is mulling discontinuing non-stop Duronto trains. According to reports, two Duronto trains – from Chennai to Tiruvanantpuram and from Chennai to Coimbatore – will be discontinued from December 03 and 09 respectively.
Duronto Trains are non stop train connected the two cities. When there exists 2-3 trains full passenger traffic between two cities, Duronto Trains will surely be a preferred train. Rajdhani Trains connecting the State Capital with Delhi runs full and there is always unfilled demand. Such situation arises when a train specification is neither drawn nor put into a passenger domain with full transparency.
What is a Duronto train?
As understood, specification of Duranto train can be given as
- Non-stop train between any two cities with at least daily passenger traffic of 2500 or more. Stoppages provided are for operation and logistic reason.
- Maximum permissible speed of 120-130 Kmph
- The distance between two cities be more than 1000 Km to be covered at an average speed of not less than 85 Kmph. The journey shall be covered overnight and no day train.
- It is a full AC train with a composition of 1,2 and 3AC
- Duranto trains shall help in absorbing the end to end load of regular trains of the section. The released capacity in the regular train shall serve the passenger traffic of intermediate station on the route.
If such trains are unsuccessful, it is matter of some serious thinking and discontinuation of the train alone will not serve the purpose. This is a declared non-stop train and continue to keep it like this in future. In case Indian Railways decides to provide stoppages to Duranto, then it will be given at stations where already all the existing trains are stopping, and therefore, no new traffic.
Look at the time-table and following needs correction
- The trains shall start from Important stations. Starting or terminating a train at Delhi Sarai Rohilla, Shalimar, Yashvantpur will not attract premium passenger. Passenger wants to enjoy the ambiance of the station before taking seat in the train
- Why mix up intercity demand with Duranto trains? One can certainly blame political class for running Duranto between HWH-Digha
- The start journey time shall not be later than 2230 hrs.
- As on date, all Duranto’s are non-daily trains. Considering the purpose of Duranto, it should be a daily train. Passenger search for non-daily trains only after unsuccessful in regular and patronized trains.
It is high time that Indian Railways shall
- Initiate marketing strategy to attract AC class passenger
- Build brand value for trains particularly non-stop trains. Brand values are in terms of punctuality, catering, cleanliness, quality of linen and service on mobile at operating halts of
- Specific eatables of choice
- Newspaper and periodicals
- Medical help
- Any other item
- Earning of AC coach is much more than SL class and therefore popularization of these trains is highly desirable.