The new Southern Zone Railway Time Table-2013 was released by South Central Railway general manager DP Pande here on Saturday.
The new time table, that will come into force from July 1, provides detailed information on all the trains run on SCR, Southern Railway, South Western Railway and Konkan Railway, and other services. It will be available for sale at railway stations within a week.
While 51 new trains _ 31 originating and 20 passing through _ were introduced on SCR in the last two years, 25 more _ 14 originating and 11 passing through _ have been allotted to SCR in the recent rail budget. There are several firsts in this time table such as new connections from important passenger hubs on SCR to various popular destinations. Some of these include new express trains from Kacheguda to Mangalore, Tirupati to Puducherry, Kakinada to Mumbai, Guntur to Shirdi, Nizamabad to Mumbai, Nanded to Nangaldam and Visakhapatnam to Gandhidham.
This year the run of 10 trains has been extended and the frequency of eight increased while one train has been diverted. Ten trains have been speeded up and the terminal of two express trains has been changed from Hyderabad to Secunderabad. Additional stoppages have been provided for three express trains at 11 stations. There will be change in the timings of 24 trains at various stations.
Pande also released the MMTS-Cum-Local Trains Pocket Time Table-2013 for the benefit of commuters in the twin cities. It contains schedules of MMTS/local train services and other useful information such as system map, fare tables, list of colonies near to each MMTS station, tips for safe journey and public awareness campaign material etc and is priced at a nominal Rs 5 only. Speaking to reporters, Pande said SCR loaded more than 110 million tons of freight and carried around 387 millions of originating passengers, with an earnings of more than Rs 10,000 crore last year.
Keeping in view the potential for further growth of traffic and in response to the requirements of public of this region, SCR will expand its network and services with focus on delivering good services to its customers.