In another achievement, the Indian Railways successfully operated two long haul freight trains “Trishul” and “Garuda” for the first time over South Central Railway(SCR). Long haul trains, which are twice or multiple times longer than the normal composition of freight trains, provide a very effective solution to the problem of capacity constraints in critical sections.
Railway Ministry tweeted, “For the first time, South Central Railways has operated “Trishul”, long haul Goods train clubbing together three Goods trains. It was formed at Vijayawada and operated as a single train upto Duvvada station. The initiative was taken to speed up the operation of Goods trains.”
The freight train “Trishul”, named so to indicate three trains being operated as a single train, was formed at Vijayawada and operated as a single train upto Duvvada, the last station bordering SCR jurisdiction. The train consisted of 176 wagons and is meant for loading of the freight customers.
Trishul is SCR’s first long haul comprising of three freight trains, i.e., 177 wagons. This train was started on October 7, 2021, from Kondapalli station of Vijayawada division to Khurda division of East Coast Railway. SCR followed it up with running of yet another similar one named Garuda on October 8 from Raichur of Guntakal division to Manuguru of Secunderabad division.
In both cases, the long haul trains comprised of empty open wagons for loading of coal meant for predominantly thermal power stations.
As per Railway Ministry, SCR is one of the five major freight loading railways on IR. Bulk of SCR’s freight traffic moves in certain arterial routes such as Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada-Gudur-Renigunta, Ballarshah-Kazipet-Vijayawada, Kazipet-Secunderabad-Wadi, Vijayawada-Guntur-Guntakal sections. As bulk of its freight traffic has to pass through these major routes, it is essential for SCR to maximize throughput available across these critical sections.
Saving of path across congested routes, quicker transit time, maximizing the throughput of critical sections, saving in crews are the major operational benefits of running long haul trains, which help IR serve its freight customers better.
Note that Railways’ South Eastern Central Railway (SECR) zone has the record of operating the longest freight train on the Indian Railways network. The total length of the freight train was around 3.5 kilometers after joining the five rakes and it was named ‘Vasuki’.
The distance between Bhilai to Korba is 224 kilometers and the long-haul freight train named ‘Vasuki’ covered the whole distance with five rakes of a freight train.
