Southern Railway increases speed of trains to 130 kmph on major route of Chennai – Bangalore

Southern Railway has increased the speed o­n the major route of Chennai – Bangalore to 130 kmph. The newly introduced Chennai – Coimbatore Vande Bharat will be plying at 130 kmph and consequently Coimbatore bound passengers will save 1 hour 20 mins o­n the same route.

More Details:

Coimbatore Vande Bharat will be plying at 130 kmph:

  • The new Chennai – Coimbatore – Chennai Vande Bharat inaugurated by Hon’ble PM will run at 130 kmph in Chennai – Jolarpettai section.
  • This will greatly benefit passengers as the new Vande Bharat service will take o­nly 5 hours 50 minutes to reach the destination from both ends saving o­ne hour 20 minutes of journey time.
  • Other trains plying in the section including Chennai – Bangalore Shatabdi  will also witness considerable reduction in journey time from June o­nwards.

44 trains already speeded up:

  • Consequent to speed raising across various sections, 44 train services have so far been speeded up across Southern Railway during the year 2022-23 thereby easing the travel time for passengers.
  • This speed increase will also improve the overall efficiency of the zone besides giving a fillip to freight operations.

Speed raised over 2037 Kms of SR network in FY 2022-23:

  • In the route spanning 2037 Kms, speed enhancement works have been successfully completed during the year. Further, speed has been enhanced in loop lines of various sections of Southern Railway for an aggregate length of 1445 Route kms across the zone. 

Sections in which sectional speed has been increased to 130 Kmph:

  • Over 413.62 Route Kms of Southern Railway network, the maximum speed has been enhanced to 130 kmph from 110 kmph as given below:
    • Chennai – Renigunta section spanning 134.3 Route Kms has now been authorised for speed increase from the existing 110 kmph to 130 kmph since 29th March 2023.
    • Arakkonam – Jolarpettai section (144.54 Km) has been authorised for increasing maximum permissible speed to 130 kmph from 110 kmph from 31st March 2023.
    • Chennai – Gudur section became the first section in Southern Railway to be authorised for increasing maximum permissible speed to 130 Kmph from 110 kmph from October 2022.

Sections with Maximum permissible speed of 110/100 Kmph:

  • In various important sections across the zone covering a network of 1218 Kms the maximum permissible speed has been enhanced to 110 Kmph and for a network spanning 406 kms the maximum permissible speed of various sections has been enhanced upto 100 Kmph during the financial year 2022-23.

Speed increase in loop lines:

  • Speed of loop lines in various stations across Southern Railway has been increased from the existing 15 kmph to 30 kmph for an aggregate length of 1445 Route Kms. This helps in improving operational efficiency and reducing overall transit time for passengers.
  • Southern Railway reaffirms its commitment to offer safe and punctual train operations and reduced transit time for passengers.

Source: Southern Railway- Press Release | Image Credit (representational): Southern Railway