Slow and fast passenger trains in India


The Slow and Fast Passenger trains are a series of passenger train services of Indian Railways which connect small towns and cities to metropolitan cities in India, which form the backbone of the economy and railways of India for future development. The word Passenger states that it halts at all stations on the electrified and non-electrified railway routes. Currently, the total separate 3572 passenger trains are running of all railway zones of IR.

History

The country's first passenger train from Western India, which ran between Bombay's Bori Bunder station and Thane on 16 April 1853, was dedicated by Lord Dalhousie. The 14-carriage train was hauled by three steam locomotives: the Sahib, Sindh, and Sultan. Travelling, the train carried 400 people. The passenger line was built and operated by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway.It was built in broad gauge, which became the country's standard for railways.
Later the country's second passenger train from Eastern India, which ran from Howrah to Hoogly, a distance of, on 15 August 1854. The line was built and operated by the East Indian Railway Company.
And After that, the country's third passenger train from Southern India, which ran from Royapuram–Veyasarapady to Wallajah Road in Arcot, a distance of, on 1 July 1856. It was built and operated by the Madras Railway.
In 1897 lighting in passenger coaches was introduced by many railway companies. In 1902 the Jodhpur Railway became the first to introduce electric lights as standard fixtures.
Whereas The railway budget has commissioned to the electrification of railway lines in India which also started from Bombay to spread all over India with this aim, the first electric passenger train ran from Victoria Terminus to Kurla on the Harbour Branch of Great Indian Peninsula Railway on 3rd February 1925 using 1500 V DC Overhead Traction.
After that, In the year 1957, the First Diesel locomotive WDM-1 was introduced in India for reducing the usage of steam locomotives for goods and passenger transport. and also begins the aim of replacing steam locomotives from Indian Rails after recommendation of Karnail Singh Fuel Committee. And also that, Indian Railways began looking at various diesel-electric designs.
After that 1994, The Integral Coach Factory started production of DMU's and MEMU's with aim of this for connecting minor railway stations and stops on the mainline where most express trains don't have a halt. After productions of both series, the first MEMU train was started running between Asansol and Burdwan on 11th July 1994. And later, the first DEMU train was started running between Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur on 23rd October 1994.
On 15 July 2017, The new type of Solar-Powered DEMU train was launched on the route of and of Haryana for connecting Capital of India to the small town with the aim reducing the usage of diesel and more usage of electricity for a better environment and economically.

About

With the aim of connecting small towns and cities to another, this type of trains has an important priority to Indian Railways network. Mostly these trains are unreserved coaches, for short-distance unreserved seating coaches are used and for the long-distance unreserved sleeper and seating coaches are used.
Passenger trains are classified into four types:
In some cases, trains run as fast passengers on one section, while running as slow passengers on another section. Fast passenger trains generally run on longer routes as compared to slow passenger trains.
Mostly, the number of slow and fast passenger trains has an average trip up to 300km of distance on the other hand DEMU's and MEMU's have an average trip of more than 200km of distance.

Locomotives of Passenger trains

The passenger trains are usually hauled by locomotives by WAM4, WAG5, WAG7, for electrified route and WDM-2 for non-electrified and electrified route mostly, so the attachment and detachment of locomotives are done for changing and reversing the route which is time consumable and should be the higher risk of accidents.

DEMU and MEMU

On the other hand, the DEMU's and MEMU's have two-sided engines for changing and reversing the route which is a bigger advantage on the attachment-detachment process of rakes and locomotives. On this basis, Indian Railways is progressively replacing all locomotive-hauled slow and fast passenger and intercity trains with various EMU's. After replacing with EMUs, passenger trains would be re-branded as MEMU and DEMU. Conversion started from North Western Railway zone on 1st October 2015.
Here the Types of DEMU and MEMU train

Interiors

The Interiors of Passenger trains are as shown below:

Longest running slow and fast passenger trains

Currently, The longest route of a slow passenger train running in India is Tatanagar-Itwari Passenger with a record distance of with an average speed of.
Whereas, The longest route of a fast passenger train running in India is Howrah-Rajgir Fast Passenger with a record distance of with an average speed of.
Whereas after the second conversion of Slow Passenger train into DEMU, on 18th July 2018, the Guntur–Kacheguda DEMU via Dhone becomes the longest distance traveling DEMU train in India with a record distance of with an average speed of. Before that, the first conversion of Slow Passenger train into DEMU, was on 01st October 2015, the Jodhpur–Hisar DEMU becomes the Second longest DEMU train running in India with the recorded length of with an average speed of.
And Currently, The Longest route running MEMU train in India is Asansol-Varanasi MEMU with a record distance of with an average speed of.

Shortest running slow and fast passenger trains

Currently, The shortest route of a slow passenger train in India is Barkakana-Sidhwar Passenger with a record distance of with an average speed of.
The shortest route of DEMU train in India is Garhi Harsaru-Farrukhnagar DEMU with a record distance of with an average speed of.
The Shortest route of MEMU train in India is Jasidih-Baidyanathdham MEMU with a record distance of with an average speed of.

Gallery

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