On Sunday, the state-of-the-art Tejas Express arrived a minute ahead of schedule despite facing a three-hour delay in Goa. The luxury train was delayed on the account of an empty coach from Mumbai pulling in late into the Karmali station in Goa.
“The changed timetable led to the delay. This train is always on time otherwise,” said LK Verma, chief spokesperson of Konkan Railway.
The train had left Goa at 10:30 am and travelled 750 km to reach Mumbai at 7:44 pm. This was the first journey of this express under new monsoon timetable and from now on, it will run thrice a week from Mumbai and will return from Goa next day.
So, to make up for the lost time, it travelled at 153 kmph between Karmali and Kudal, at 137 kmph between Kudal and Ratnagiri and 125 kmph between Ratnagri and Panvel! All thanks to its powerful electro-pneumatic brake systems.
Under the monsoon time table, the Tejas is scheduled to run thrice a week from Mumbai and return from Karmali in Goa the next day. It halts at Dadar, Thane, Panvel, Ratnagiri and Kudal stations. The monsoon service will be ending on October 31.
Punctuality has been a major cause of concern for Indian Railways. In 2016-17, the railways received 43,577 complaints about trains delays. Now Tejas has set a new bar for the railways.
