While releasing the timetable for 2008-09, representatives said Northern Railways has seriously taken into account the issue of rationalisation of major terminals in the Capital. “There are two serious issues that needed to be addressed; one was wastage of time because all terminals are just a few kilometres apart, so for a train to stop at each just adds to the total time of the journey. The other issue was the capacity of the terminals,” Rajeev Saksena, Northern Railways chief public relations officer, said.

With effect from Tuesday, almost 10 long-distance trains will depart and arrive at only one Delhi terminal. “For instance, the Mumbai Amritsar Golden Temple Mail use to go via Hazrat Nizammudin to New Delhi and then onwards to Ghaziabad. From tomorrow, it will go directly from Nizammudin to Ghaziabad, thereby saving time and reducing the burden on New Delhi Railway Station,” Saksena said.

With the Anand Vihar Terminal scheduled to start functioning by October this year, the Capital will in effect have four major terminals. The new timetable also lists four new trains, which will arrive and depart from the Anand Vihar Terminal once it is functional. “Of course, the Anand Vihar schedules will be charted out once the station is functional but amongst the 24 new trains being introduced on the Northern Railways network, four will only start once the Anand Vihar terminal is ready,” a railway official said.

Moreover, 48 trains on the entire Northern Railways network have been accelerated by 10-215 minutes. “For example, the Varanasi-Dehradun Express, which passes through Delhi will be accelerated by 215 minutes,” Saksena said.

The acceleration is being brought about largely by increasing the speed of trains and, in some cases, by change of terminals as well.