As per the data recorded on 21 June 2020, the average speed of freight trains in June 2020 is 42 km per hour.

Indian Railways sees massive improvement in freight train operations! As freight train services continue to run on the Indian Railways network, ensuring the availability of essential commodities in all parts of the country, the national transporter has recorded a big improvement in the average speed of these trains. According to Piyush Goyal chaired Railway Ministry, the Narendra Modi government is utilizing the COVID-19 pandemic period to push operations of freight train services. The Railway Ministry recently stated, as on 21 June 2020, the average speed of Indian Railways’ freight train services has nearly doubled as compared to the average speed of last year.

According to details shared by the Railway Ministry, during June 2019, the average speed of freight trains was 23 km per hour. On the other hand, as per the data recorded on 21 June 2020, the average speed of freight trains in June 2020 is 42 km per hour.

Interestingly, on 22 June 2020, Indian Railways recorded the highest ever punctuality rate of its special passenger train services at 98 per cent. Recently, four Indian Railways’ divisions have reported 100 per cent punctuality of special trains. These four divisions are Delhi division, Agra division, Prayagraj division and Jhansi division. A few days ago, the Railway Board Chairman, V K Yadav had directed all the zones of Indian Railways to ensure 100 per cent punctuality of the 230 special trains since Indian Railways had received criticism for train delays.

Yadav had also asked seven zonal railways namely, Central Railway, South East Central Railway, East Coast Railway, East Central Railway, Northern Railway, North Central Railway and West Central Railway, to identify the causes that were leading to train delays and take remedial steps. As reported earlier, these seven zones of Indian Railways are the ones in which most of the freight loading takes place and on which, most freight trains are run.