Know About the History of Bombay Rajdhani Express ?

May 20, 2019, 5:01 PM

The Bombay Rajdhani was introduced on May 17, 1972 with a maximum speed of 120 km/h and booked speed of 115 km/h. It covered the 1384km route in about 19 hours. It was a biweekly train. The cost was Rs. 343 by AC sleeper and Rs. 114 by AC Chair car. Composition – 1 AC sleeper with 18 berths, 4 AC chair cars with 71 seats each, 1 pantry-cum-chair car with 10 seats, 2 luggage-cum-power cars. An additional AC Chair car with 71 seats ran as and when traffic justified it. There was no booking of passengers for stations enroute.

The Bombay – New Delhi Rajdhani was initially hauled by a single specially regeared Ratlam WDM-2 loco. There were operational halts at Vadodara, Ratlam, Gangapur City and Mathura, for watering, engine changing, change of crew, issue of caution orders, etc. A few years later, Vadodara and Ratlam became passenger halts, Gangapur City still existed as a service halt and Mathura had been removed.

In 1984, the train became double-headed (WDM-2’s) with 18 air-braked coaches (the first long-distance train to get air-braked stock for regular operations). At the time electric traction was not continuous all the way between New Delhi and Bombay, and most electric locos were not fitted with air brakes, hence the choice of the twin WDM-2 locos. Further, the change to DC traction after Virar towards Bombay would have necessitated a change of locos in any case, lengthening the trip time. Except for a couple of patches in the Nagda-Kota section, the entire Bombay-New Delhi section was double-tracked – so journey time had been cut down to about 17-1/2 hours. By the late 1980s, a WAP-1 (from Vadodara shed) would take over in the Ratlam – New Delhi section (or sometimes from Vadodara onwards), thus increasing the speed to 120/130 booked/max. in this section. Later WAP-3 and other WAP series locos were used.

The WAP locos couldn’t run all the way to Bombay because of the change of traction at Virar, and the diesel shed at Ratlam was conveniently situated to handle the WDM-2’s required for that run of the Rajdhani. With the WAP locos hauling the train for part of the way, the running time was brought down to about 16-1/2 hrs. Kota was included as a passenger halt and Gangapur City was removed from the list.

With the introduction of the high-speed dual-voltage (AC/DC) WCAM-2P locos (which were also air-braked) in 1993-94, the Rajdhani could electric hauled all the way. A WCAM-2P hauled it on the Mumbai Central – Vadodara section, and a WAP series loco hauled it for the rest of the route to New Delhi.

On December 15th 2003, a new LHB rake was assigned to the Mumbai Rajdhani. The new coaches incorporate advanced features such as anti-skid disc brakes, a modular pantry, a food warmer/cooler, and anti-telescopic and anti-climbing features. The new coaches have higher passenger-carrying capacity and are designed for a higher speed rating of 140kmh.

Source – IFRCA.org

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