Are there rail connections to Bhutan?

19-07-2019

Currently there are no railways at all in Bhutan. However, recently a proposal has been floated to link Bhutan's border towns with three railheads in Assam and two in West Bengal. In this proposal, the following cross-border lines would be constructed: Banarhat, West Bengal -- Samchi (Samtse) (16km) Hashimara, West Bengal -- Phuentsholing (18km), with a possible extension to Pasakha Kokrajhar, Assam -- Gelekphu (70km) Pathsala, Assam -- Nanglam (40km) Rangia, Assam -- Sandrup Jonghkar via Darranga (60km) There has been no progress on these proposals. In October 2009, these proposed links to Bhutan came up again in press releases and announcements. Source -

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What’s the ‘minimum running time’ of a train on a section of track?
July 17, 2019

The minimum running time of a train between two points (usually two stations) is defined as the time it takes the train to travel between those points at the maximum permissible speed allowed for that train on that section, with allowances for permanent or temporary speed restrictions in effect and gradients along the route. Source -

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What’s the ‘maximum permissible speed’ (MPS) of a train?
July 17, 2019

The maximum permissible speed is the highest speed permitted for a train on a particular section, and is not to be exceeded under any circumstances. A train needs to run at this speed only to make up for lost time. Most of the zonal railways fix the difference between max. perm. speed and booked speed as 10% although NR fixes this as 12-1/2 %.

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Why do trains sometimes halt at stations or other points not marked as halts in the published timetables?
July 17, 2019

Apart from unscheduled or emergency stops, there are a number of technical halts provided in the operation of most trains. These are halts for the purposes of changing loco crew, changing locomotives, picking up food or water, etc. These halts do not show up on the normal published timetables, but they do appear in the working timetable which is

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What are the booked speed and commercial speed of a train?
July 17, 2019

The booked speed is the maximum speed at which the train needs to travel in order to maintain the published time-table schedule, if running on time. The commercial speed of a train is the average speed for a section of the route -- i.e., distance between endpoints divided by the time taken, including the time taken for technical halts and

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Where are locomotive drivers and other crew trained?
July 17, 2019

IR has many training centres in different places. A large Locomotive Training Centre is at Asansol for training in the operation and maintenance of electric locos, and a Diesel Training Centre is found at Gaya for diesel locos. Another training school for AC locomotives is at Annanur, near the Avadi EMU shed. Arakkonam has a Drivers Training

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How are crew requirements estimated for freight trains?
July 17, 2019

Freight trains, unlike passenger trains, don't always have a fixed time-table, and are scheduled on demand. Every month, the Chief Operations Manager of a division issues a Power Plan which has the expected number of up and down freight trains that will originate from or require crew from a given station/shed. This estimate is used to estimate

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