Railways Plans Double Decker Trains for Passenger & Cargo Transport

NEW DELHI: In a first, the Indian Railways plans to roll out double decker trains which can transport cargo and passengers as well. First two such trains with 20 coaches will be manufactured with nearly Rs 160 crore investments at a rail coach factory, sources said.
These will be rolled out on the concept of Cargo-liners, which is a regular scheduled service on a fixed route between designated points and carries many consignments of different commodities.
Sources said while the middle and upper decks of the coaches in the trains will have the seating space to accommodate a maximum of 72 passengers, the lower deck can be used for transporting goods of upto 4-5 tonnes.
Such service will give a big boost to accelerate the timetable parcel service, which has emerged as a new area of business for the railways since the Covid-19 impacted the operation of passenger trains.

In the past couple of years the railway ministry has put greater focus on freight movement, which is the main source of its revenue. It has set the target for the highest ever freight loading during 2022-23 at 1,475 million tonnes (MTs), an increase of 5% from the current fiscal year. This is estimated to generate around Rs 1.65 lakh crore, which is nearly 14% more than the earning from the freight segment in the current fiscal year ending March 2022.
In a recent interview with the TOI, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said an additional one million tonne of cargo loading generates at least Rs 80 crore revenue and hence earnings from freight is important for railways’ finances.

Source: ToI