The Rajdhani Passenger Express.
India’s superfast train service.
The Rajdhani Passenger Express enjoys an iconic reputation among the trains that transport 25 million passengers each day across the country of India.
In 1969 when the first one, rolled out of the New Delhi railway station and made its historic run for Howrah in West Bengal, a station built by the British and the oldest in the sub-continent, it heralded in a new era of super-fast trains and gained a fan following that till date hasn’t diminished a bit.
Kids who once hopped on board with glee tethered to the arms of anxious parents afraid to lose them in the crowd, many now in their early forties, take their children on long distant journeys without thinking twice about a hike in its fares.
Others who have grown up on stories of the express service stand wide-eyed on platforms waiting for the trains to roll into the station – and all because of one particular train that proved speedy travel was a possibility on Indian tracks.
The Howrah Rajdhani.
This train was the Howrah Rajdhani, the first of all the Rajdhani trains that currently operate in the country of India.
It had come into being after the Railway Budget of 1969 which had proposed the introduction of a new train capable of reducing travel time to 18 hours between important destinations – mainly the capital cities of India.
The proposal had been put forward by Dr. Ram Subhag Singh, an Indian politician and a member of the Indian Parliament, who had served as Minister for Indian Railways from the 14th of February to the 4th of November, 1969.
Dr. Subhag Singh had put forward the proposal on the 19th of February in 1969 – and a month later, on the 1st of March, 1969, the Howrah Rajdhani had made its debut as a biweekly train service.
Engine of the Howrah Rajdhani in 1969.
Unlike the current trains of the express service, the coaches of the Howrah Rajdhani in 1969 was pulled by a WDM-4 class of locomotive engine produced by the U.S. locomotive manufacturer, Electro-Motive Diesel Corporation – a company that was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1922.
The U.S. Company had produced the WDM-4 class of engines in the 1960s to help the Indian Railways replace its ageing steam locomotives – after a 224 page report had been submitted by the Expert Committee on coal consumption by the Indian Railways in 1958.
The Expert Committee report, 1958.
Headed by Karnail Singh, a member of the Indian Railway’s engineering section, the Expert Committee had been formed in 1957 at the request of Indian politician Jagjivan Ram, who had then held the post of the Minister of Railways. Its mission was to ascertain how dependency on high-grade coal was responsible for the high fuel costs incurred by the Indian Railways.
According to the report of this committee, trains of the Indian Railways at the time were utilizing a third of the entire coal supply in the country – which was not only putting an enormous strain on the low availability of high-grade coals but also constituted the single-item factor responsible for the Railway’s exorbitant spendings.
Although this committee had initially proposed setting up of washeries for refining an inferior variety of coal for use by the Indian Railways, diesel-powered locomotives had later emerged as a viable option – and thus had come about the WDM-4 type of locomotive engines.
Route of the Howrah Rajdhani.
The Howrah Rajdhani had made its maiden journey, on the 1,441 km stretch that had connected Delhi to Kolkatta.
Known as the Howrah-Delhi main line, this stretch had been originally built by the East Indian Railway Company. A British firm that had worked in collaboration with the East India Company, before the latter’s dissolution in 1858.
The survey had been carried out in 1846 and development had taken place in stages between 1851 and 1866. The colossal undertaking had seen the laying out of miles of railway tracks, and the construction of wayside stations and bridges over rivers and other large water bodies to connect the two distant cities.
In 1961, the Indian Railways had deliberately opted to test the Howrah Rajdhani on this extensive stretch of laid-out railway lines for the reason that the Howrah-Delhi mainline had boasted of robust and superior infrastructure, that was nowhere else to be found in India at the time.
Furthermore, between the 1950s and 60s, several sections of this massive stretch had already been electrified, and the railway lines were primarily of the broad gauge type.
Time taken by the Howrah Rajdhani to cover the distance.
The Howrah Rajdhani had covered the distance in 17hrs and 20 mins, travelling at a speed of 120 kmph. En route, the train had made technical halts at the stations of Kanpur, Mughalsarai and Gomah. It had left New Delhi at 5:30 pm, on a Saturday and arrived at Kolkatta at precisely 10:50 am, on the following day that was Sunday.
Upon reaching its destination in the estimated time the train had not only lived up to expectations but also proved that distances could be covered in less time than what other trains of the era were capable of accomplishing in twenty-four hours or more.
On its maiden journey, the train’s WDM-4-powered locomotive engine had pulled nine carriages which had included a dining carriage, five chair carriages, a first-class carriage and two generator carriages.
Greetings Card on being a pioneer: Trains, Humour.
Actual Dimension: 1200 x 1203 pixels.
These carriages had been specially developed for the Rajdhani by the Integral Coach factory located at Perambur, in Tamil Nadu – and had come with vacuum brakes and an under-slung air-conditioning system.
On the 3rd of March 1969, the train had made its return journey. It had departed Howrah at 5:00 pm on a Monday and arrived at New Delhi at 10:20 am on a Tuesday.
Shortly afterwards, the train service had been made accessible to the public on a biweekly basis. It had operated on Mondays and Fridays – and charged passengers Rs. 280 for its first-class carriage and Rs. 90 for its chair carriages.
Speed of the Rajdhani trains, today.
Though the current trains of the Howrah Rajdhani are far superior to the one that ushered in the era of superfast trains in India, in terms of speed, structural integrity and amenities. None ever accelerates to their maximum speed of 140 kmph for safety reasons.
Furthermore, this express service that celebrates its birthday on the 1st of March each year and has been operational for over half a century, also does not qualify in the category of the ‘fastest in the world’.
Yet its reputation for punctuality and service, remains unmarred and unbeaten by any, except perhaps the later Shatabdi and the Duronto train service that matches it in both areas with some even superseding it.
Late, the trains can still get, over technical delays – and especially during winter months with dense fog hampering visibility.
