Kochi: A total of 18 trains would be upgraded as Superfast trains by next month while the running time of another one dozen long-distance ones in the division would be made shorter by September one, when the new railway timetable will come into effect.
“By this measure we plan to decrease the running time of major long-distance trains by September one. Mainly we’ll do this by cutting stops and rerouting. In absolute terms, there is not much scope to increase the speed of trains in the division which currently peaks at around 100 km/hr in certain sections,” Divisional Railway Manager Sunil Bajpai said.
The trains that will be converted into Superfast ones are Chennai Central-Mangalore West Coast Express, Chennai-Alleppey Express, Thiruvananthapuram-Shalimar (bi-weekly) Express, Patna-Ernakulam (bi-weekly) Express, Thiruvananthapuram- Indore Ahilyanagari Express, Korba-Thiruvananthapuram (bi-weekly) Express, Chennai Central-Erode Yercaud Express and Chennai Central-Palani Express (both directions) – all by July 17.
Meanwhile from Tuesday onwards, the Chennai Mail running between Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai Central will be diverted via Coimbatore with a stop at Coimbatore. The train towards Chennai will have an early start from Thiruvananthapuram Central at 2.05 pm against 2.30 pm.
The Kannur-Yeshvantpur Express also will be diverted via Coimbatore and the stop at Podhanur will be eliminated.
Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil Passenger scheduled to leave Thiruvananthapuram will have an early start by 15 minutes at 5 pm to reach the destination by 7.10 pm. The Gorakhpur-Thiruvananthapuram
Raptisgar express of Tuesday, Saturday and Sundays will now reach Thiruvananthapuram at 17.15 hrs (15minutes early) from July 5.
