MAIDEN TIME TABLED CONTAINER TRAIN “CARGO EXPRESS” CREATES A NEW HISTORY IN REACHING DESTINATION 13 HOURS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

MAIDEN TIME TABLED CONTAINER TRAIN “CARGO EXPRESS” CREATES A NEW HISTORY IN REACHING DESTINATION 13 HOURS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

SECOND SCHEDULED TIME TABLED FREIGHT TRAIN FOR TONDIARPET (CHENNAI) DEPARTS FROM OKHLA AT 0030 HRS TODAY (18TH JUNE)

ENCOURAGING RESULTS OF THE MAIDEN TRAIN WELL RECEIVED BY TRADERS 25-30% INCREASE IN TRAFFIC OFFERINGS EXPECTED FROM DOMESTIC PIECE-MEAL TRAFFIC

RAILWAY TO COMMENCE REGULAR WEEKLY TIME TABLED FREIGHT TRAINS

RAILWAY PLANS TO INCREASE FREQUENCY AT ORGINATING/DESTINATION ENDS ON INCREMENTAL OFFERING OF CARGO AT EITHER ENDS

Marking a paradigm shift in freight operations, Indian Railways commenced the first time-tabled freight train named Cargo Express. This inaugural train commenced from Okhla(Delhi) on 15th June at 03.40 p.m. on its schedule and reached ICD Whitefield (Bengaluru) at 0020 Hrs today i.e. 18th June, 2016, notching a record success in reaching destination 13 hours ahead of schedule. The Cargo Express train was to reach destination ICD Whitefield (Bengaluru) as per a scheduled time frame of 70 hours. But defying time-frames, the Cargo Express reached the destination this morning (0020 Hrs of 18.06.2016) in a noteworthy record of 56 hrs 40 mins knocking out its scheduled time frame of 70 hours. The inaugural train had moved with 80 TEUs (twenty feet equivalent units) carrying domestic consignments of ceramic tiles, marble powder, poultry feed, malt, rice, wheat, calcium carbonate, soap stone powder, gram dal, paper and steel tubes. 

Defining a new age of possibilities through assured transit times of freight trains enabling certainty in keeping up with delivery schedules, two pairs of time tabled container were planned as a pilot initiative for catering to domestic piece-meal traffic segment between Delhi- Bangalore and Delhi- Chennai, both of these two cities are a distance of around 2200 km from Delhi. The scheduled time table train for Tondiarpet (Chennai) also departed from Okhla at 00.30 hrs. today (18th June).

Following the budget announcement, discussions had been held with Container Train Operators for submitting proposals for introduction of time tabled container trains with the objective of attracting incremental volumes of container traffic to rail mode. Accordingly, two pairs of time tabled container trains had been proposed by CONCOR to start with, for running in the domestic sector between Delhi and Bangalore and Delhi and Chennai. Following the success of the above introduced freight trains, Indian Railways envisages to plan more regular trains through premium paths for all container operators through suitable policy changes. 

The running of time-tabled freight trains is envisaged to afford a reliable value proposition to traders, notably in the the domestic piecemeal traffic sector viz. steel tubes, food-grains, ceramic tiles, polished granite slabs, rubber latex, plywood boards, alloys, electronic goods, chemicals, cars and automobile spares. CONCOR(the logistics enterprise of Govt. of India) estimates the volume of containerized traffic in these sectors to improve by25-30% with the introduction of assured transit time.

Source:Northern Railway