Tuesday 17 December 2013

Freight traffic on Indian Railways

Importance of Freight traffic

Freight traffic is the major source of revenue for Indian Railways.
Only one-third of the 13000 trains running daily on IR are freight trains, but it accounts 65% of total revenue of IR.
Railway Freight traffic is vital for economic and industrial progress of the country.
Raw materials from producing centers to factories and finished/semi-finished products from factories to consumption areas or ports for export has to be carried. Eg: Coal reserves from Bengal and Bihar has to be transported to thermal and steel plants all over the country.

Share of traffic carried over rail/road

Goods Traffic on IR for the Year 2010-11

Diversion of freight traffic

Taking into overall cost of transport road transport is generally economical only for short hauls only.

Railways plays dominant role for meeting transport requirement for the following reasons:

More energy efficient: Using same quantity of fuel Railways carry more than 6 times the traffic that could be carried by road. Thus it reduces the burden on foreign exchange.
Less pollution : Railways are more environment friendly especially for electric traction.
Better Land use

Goods operations Points

Loading/unloading points viz, station platforms, goods sheds and sidings which maybe private, assisted or railways owned.
Sections through which various kinds of goods trains are run to carry the traffic from originating to destination points.
Intermediate marshalling yards where goods trains are received, reformed and dispatched.
Transhipment points where goods are transshipped from one gauge to another.
Control organization which is responsible for planning, organizing and monitoring of goods operation as well as passenger traffic.

Units of Loading

Discontinuance of less than wagon load

IR discontinued booking of less than wagon load as it was neither convenient nor economical for following reasons.

Wagon space is poorly utilized as waiting for full wagon delays the dispatch of consignment.
Repeated handling of goods leading to claims.
Cumbersome documentation.
Van Goods trains which carry the consignments may have poor average speeds due to detention at stations for loading/unloading or shunting and hence poor utilization of Rolling stock and Line Capacity.

Booking of Train load Traffic

Rail Transport is most cost effective where traffic is moved in point to point train loads without the need of shunting/sorting enroute.
Major commodities forming 90% of goods traffic are amenable to be moved in train loads.

Steps taken to encourage train load traffic

Quoting reduced rates for train loads.
Encouraging collieries and major users of coal like thermal power houses to have their sidings suitably strengthened/ extended to ensure full rake loading.
To set up coal dumps at nodal points for small consumers.
To encourage steel authorities to set up steel stock yards so that full train loads of iron and steel products could move from steel plants to stock yards.
Encourage oil companies to install full rake sidings at loading/unloading points for POL trains.
Ensure Jumpo rakes consisting of covered Roller Bearing CBC wagons are provided for laoding and transport of commodities such as foodgrains, cement and fertilizers.