In 1853, when the first train was run between the Mumbai and Thane, nobody had envisaged that railways would come such a long way. It has grown from strength to strength and is now the fourth largest railway network in the world. It has continuously strived to keep up to date to the changing technology and other things. First the steam trains, then the mails, then the express, the Mumbai suburban trains and now the Duronto and Shatabdi. These are almost like a feather in the cap for the Indian railways.
High Speed Trains.
More in the wake of bullet trains in the Far East, India decided to have something on similar lines. Though currently it does not have the budget, nor the technology added with geographical constraints Indian railways decided to come up with its own idea of bullet trains, and they were very rightly called as high speed trains. The maximum speed of this can’t go beyond 200 Kms per hour. The two high speed trains that India has are the Shatabdi and the Duronto. Let’s read about them in detail
Shatabdi
These trains are an initiative of the Indian railways where in a metro city is connected to another city which could be a pilgrimage centre or a tourist attraction or an area of business. Ideally Shatabdi runs in a single day and come back to the station of origin on the same day itself. These are one of the prestigious trains that are run by the Indian Railways and have a speed up to 125-130 kmph. However; there are instances of certain Shatabdi which touch a speed of 150 kmph. The trains are called as Shatabdi, because it was launched in the year 1988 on the 100th birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru. Shatabdi rightly means centenary in Sanskrit. The way it works is it does not stop at many stations in between thereby making it reach the destination sooner. No form of unreserved accommodation is entertained in this train, unlike many other express and mail trains. They do not have berths and have only Air-conditioned chair class. There are close to 13 Shatabdi train running in Indian railways.
Duronto
Duronto in Bengali means quick, and these are trains which run nonstop between two important stations. The Duronto connects the metro cities of India to the state capitals. They are currently the fastest running train in India. There are already 18 Duronto that are currently plied on, and a proposal for 8 more of this are in discussion. Travelling by Duronto has reduced the time to considerable levels. It has four classes the sleeper class; the 3rd, 2nd and 1st AC. Pantry cars are provided in the train itself and the cost of the meal is included in the ticket. One of the features of this train is that it is lighter in weight as compared to the other trains in India. These trains are faster than the prestigious Rajdhani express.
Many people are just getting aware of the services of these two trains, the popularity of both Shatabdi and Duronto are on a rise.