A senior railway ministry official said that 'Mission Raftaar' was announced in the Railway Budget 2016-17 and envisages a target of doubling average speed of freight trains and increasing the average speed of all non-suburban passenger trains by 25 kmph in the next five years.
"Forty-nine new trains, which have already been introduced, have been added in the new time table. These are one Vande Bharat Express train, 34 Humsafar Express trains, 11 Antyodaya Express trains, two Tejas Express trains and one Uday Express train," the official said.
The Indian Railways has also maximised the use of rolling stock.
"A review of the lie-over periods of rakes at different destinations revealed that rakes of some of the trains were idling at the terminals.
"Some of these have now been utilized for providing 40 new services, extension of 21 services and increase the frequency of 8 services. All these have been incorporated in the new time table," the official said.
The transporter has replaced 141 short distance passenger trains, especially having reversal en route, by Mainline Electric Multiple Units (MEMUs) and Diesel Electric Multiple Units (DEMUs) in 2018-2019, thereby increasing the overall mobility of the system.
The movement of 27 pairs of trains has been rationalized through adjacent/satellite terminals to obviate the need for reversal of locomotives.
Emphasising passengers' comfort and safety, a total of 411 pairs of important long distance trains are now running with Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches by utilizing 465 rakes.
( With inputs from IANS )