The Southern Railway has proposed to increase the sectional speed of trains on the newly laid double line from Tiruchi to Thanjavur.
A high speed trial run was carried out recently on the nearly 50-km section by the Chief General Engineer, Southern Railway.
Accompanied by officials of the engineering department of the Tiruchi Railway Division, the Chief General Engineer conducted the trial by travelling on board a special train on the newly laid double track from Thanjavur to Tiruchi.
Railway sources said the special train touched 120 kilometre per hour during the high speed trial run from Thanjavur to Tiruchi. The double line was laid from Golden Rock near Tiruchi to Thanjavur junction as the single line stretch had got saturated in view of the increase in number of train services over the years.
The entire broad gauge section was electrified and the Commissioner of Railway Safety, Bengaluru gave his mandatory clearance in March this year for operation of electric locomotive hauled passenger and freight train services.
Senior railway officials said the plan was to increase the sectional speed of trains on the new double track in the Tiruchi – Thanjavur – Tiruchi section from 95 kilometres to 110 kilometres per hour.
Nothing unusual was reported during the high speed trial run conducted by the Chief General Engineer, said the officials.
The high speed trial run would now pave the way for increasing the speed of express trains which run in the section such as the Mayiladuthurai – Coimbatore- Mayiladuthurai Jan Shatabdhi Express and the Karaikal – Ernakulam Tea Garden Express.
This is expected to reduce the journey time by few minutes. Officials said passenger and freight trains were being operated on the double line in the Tiruchi - Thanjavur - Tiruchi stretch already.
It was in August last week that the first electric loco hauled freight train was operated from Tiruchi to Thanjavur after completion of works spelt out by the Commissioner of Railway Safety while according statutory clearance for operation of electric-loco hauled trains in the Tiruchi- Thanjavur energised section.
