(a) whether it is a fact that the Railways is mulling increase in its run time by an hour to make it stick to schedule of trains running late;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether it is also true that the Railways is considering to adopt more scientific methods to find out the actual reasons for trains running late; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)
(a) and (b) Yes, Madam. Timings of certain Mail/Express trains have been rearranged and rationalized, which has improved punctuality of trains to some extent.
(c) and (d) Trains get delayed not only due to the factors related to its internal working but also external factors which are beyond the control of Railways. In addition to asset failures, certain factors such as line capacity and terminal capacity constraints on account of increasing passenger and freight traffic, adverse weather conditions (fog, rains, breaches), intermittent natural calamities such as floods, cyclones, heavy rains, heavy road traffic at level crossing gates across the Indian Railways network, mid-section run over cases involving cattle and humans etc. also adversely affect the Punctuality of trains over Indian Railways.
Ministry of Railways is implementing the Real-time Train information System (RTIS) which involves tracking of trains by GPS based devices on locomotives. The real-time information on passenger train movement is covered under this project.
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