Ministry of Railways
To facilitate passengers, Indian Railways, during the period 2018-19 & 2019-20, has introduced new services, as detailed below:-
| Year | Trains introduced ( in single) |
| 2018-19 | 266 |
| 2019-20 | 153 |
It is a continual endeavour of Indian Railways (IR) to upgrade train services and to provide improved facilities to the passengers. To this end, Indian Railways have introduced premium services like Vande Bharat Express, Humsafar, Tejas, Antyodaya, Utkrisht Double Decker Air-conditioned Yatri (UDAY), to provide better travelling experience to the passengers as detailed below:
- Vande Bharat Express: These State-of-the-art Train-set Vande Bharat services have been introduced on New Delhi – Varanasi and New Delhi- Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra sectors. These trains have ultra modern features like quick acceleration, on board infotainment and Global Positioning System (GPS) based passenger information system, automatic sliding doors, retractable footsteps and Zero discharge vacuum bio toilets etc.
- Tejas Express services: In all 04 pairs of Tejas Express services have been introduced over Indian Railways system. Two of these namely 22119/22120 Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus –Karmali Tejas Express and 22671/22672 Chennai Egmore – Madurai Jn Tejas Express are being run by Indian Railways, while the other two Tejas trains namely, 82501/82502 Lucknow-New Delhi Tejas Express & 82901/82902 Mumbai Central-Ahmedabad Tejas Express are operated by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
- UDAY Services: Utkrisht Double-Decker Air-conditioned Yatri (UDAY) Express have been operationalized. In all, 02 pairs of UDAY services namely 22665/22666 Bangalore City – Coimbatore UDAY Express & 22701/22702 Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada jn. UDAY Express have been introduced over Indian Railways.
- Other premium services like Humsafar, Tejas, Antyodaya, Utkrisht Double Decker Air-conditioned Yatri (UDAY), Mahamana and coaches like Deen Dayalu and Anubhuti, which have upgraded interiors / exteriors and improved passenger amenities, have been introduced in service in various train services over Indian Railways.
- IR ìs manufacturing only Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches, which are technologically superior and have better riding, aesthetics and safety features than conventional Integral Coach Factory (ICF) type coaches. Production Units of IR have stopped the manufacturing of ICF type coaches and are manufacturing only LHB coaches from the year 2018-19 onwards.
- Vistadome coaches provide panoramic view, through wider body side windows as well as through transparent sections in the roof, thus enabling the passengers to enjoy the scenic beauty of the places through which they travel. Recently, Vistadome coaches on LHB platform have been manufactured with several modern features / amenities.
- IR had also launched Project Utkrisht in April 2018 in order to improve the condition of ICF type coaches running in Mail / Express trains. Upgradation of 447 rakes of Mail / Express trains has been completed, till December 2020, under Project Utkrisht.
- Under Project Swarn, 65 rakes of Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains have been upgraded across multiple dimensions, which include coach interiors, toilets, onboard cleanliness, staff behaviour, linen, etc.
- 63 smart coaches with ultra modern features like Smart Public address and passenger information system, Smart HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning system), Smart security and surveillance system etc. have been manufactured and introduced in service.
- Conversion of End-On-Generation (EOG) trains into Head-On-Generation (HOG) trains to reduce noise and air pollution at stations and in trains. It is expected to significantly reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.
- Conventional lighting in coaches has been replaced with modern and energy efficient Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights.
- IR has also been providing increased number of mobile charging points in coaches.
This information was given by the Minister of Railways, Commerce & Industry and Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Shri Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
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