1 / 9Some 500 regular trains will be discontinued and 10,000 stops across the Indian Railways’ network will be erased in a new timetable for operations that will be adopted once the pandemic ends and services return to normal.2 / 9The Railways expect to increase their annual earnings by more than Rs 1,500 crore through this new “zero-based timetable”.3 / 9This estimated extra earning will come without having to raise fares or other charges – it will be a byproduct of the timetable, and will happen as a result of operational policy tweaks, according to internal projections of the Ministry of Railways.4 / 9The new timetable will make room to run 15 per cent more freight trains on exclusive corridors at higher speeds. The average speed of passenger trains is projected to increase by around 10 per cent across the network.5 / 9The zero-based timetable, so named because it seeks to re-imagine operations from scratch, has been developed by the Railways along with experts from IIT-Bombay.6 / 9Work started during the nationwide lockdown, when the suspension of passenger services provided an unprecedented opportunity to rethink operations without having to run trains at the same time.7 / 9The making of this modern operating tool was a top priority of the Railways, which was monitored at the highest levels.8 / 9The timetable works on the premise that the existence of every train and stop must be justified based on organisational goals of providing transportation with optimum and efficient utilisation of the available resources. Trains with less than 50 per cent occupancy on average in a year will not find any place in the network. If needed such trains will be merged with other, more popular trains.9 / 9 Details of the timetable are not available, but some of the broad principles are as follows, sources said:Long-distance trains will ideally not have stops within 200 km of each other, unless there is a major city on the way. A total 10,000 stops have been listed to be scratched however, officials clarified that the removal will only be in respect of certain trains, and there will always be some or the other train that will serve these stations.