About Indian Railways
Indian Railways is Indias national railway system operated by the Ministry of Railways. It manages the fourth largest railway network in the world by size, with a route length of 67,368-kilometre (41,861 mi) and total track length of 121,407-kilometre (75,439 mi) as of March 2017. Routes are electrified with 25 kV AC electric traction while 33% of them are double or multi-tracked.
Indian Railway (IR) runs more than 20,000 passenger trains daily, on both long-distance and suburban routes, from 7,349 stations across India. The trains have five-digit and four-digit numbering system. Mail or Express trains, the most common types, run at an average speed of 50.6 kilometres per hour (31.4 mph). Most premium passenger trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi Exp run at peak speed of 145 km/h (90 mph) with Gatiman Express between New Delhi and Agra touching peak speed of 160 km/h (99 mph). Indian railways has also started a pilot project by the name of Train-18, with successful trials between Delhi-Katra and Lucknow-Delhi and clocked maximum track speed of 180 km/h (112mph). In the freight segment, IR runs more than 9,200 trains daily. The average speed of freight trains is around 24 kilometres per hour (15 mph). Maximum speed of freight trains varies from 60 to 75 km/h (37 to 47 mph) depending upon their axle load with container special running at a peak speed of 100 km/h (62 mph).