While tracking 12978 exp. through railway status report at various wayside stations , I found one thing quite interesting and unusual when the train was passing through Kerala, in the early hours of June 22nd. The train departed from CLT at 1=08 hrs and reached Shoranur at 2=15 am ,including a 2 minute halt at Tirur, 1=41/1=43 am. It had covered a distance of 84 kms. in 1hr. 7mts.
which is very rare in this part of the country.In fact , the official Rly. Timetable
gives a minimum of 1=...
more... 23 mts for Rajdhani which runs non-stop and 1=20 mts. for 22630 in the reverse direction.In fact on this run, the train left MAQ at22=05 hrs and arrived SRR at 2=15 hrs, exactly 4hrs. & 10 mts. for a distance of 307 kms. with intermediate halts at Kasaragod, Cann., Calicut, & Tirur . The train finally arrived Ernakulam Jn. at 4=57 hrs.
Why I found it interesting is that slowly the speeds are being increased officially and unofficially which was never the case 20 years back. thanks to KRC and consequent track doubling. Even today SRR - ERL section cannot boast of commercial speeds of 75 kms. plus.
I feel there is now hope for substantial speed in rail travel in Kerala, but the rly must take a holistic view of all sections, otherwise there would still be bottlenecks. Perumkolam Hariharan.