New train timetable has wildlife guide, route maps

The Railways on Thursday released its new timetable to be effective from July 1 with new features including colour coding of trains and user friendly options like route map and station index.

Commercial information of passenger use, reservation through internet, refund rules, rail travel and catering services are the other important features of the table.

The timetable includes details about the introduction of 45 pairs of new trains, extension of 24 and increase in frequency of 15 services.

According to the timetable "Trains at a Glance", 178 mail express trains and 93 passenger trains will be speeded up.

Releasing the timetable at Rail Bhawan, V N Mathur, Member (Traffic) Railway Board said the timetable has "user friendly features", like how to read table, route map, station index, trains between important stations, station code index, train number index and train name index.

Its salient features also included colour coding scheme for trains depicting Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Jan-Shatabdi Express and Garib Rath Express in Pink, Super fast trains in yellow and Mail/Express services in Green or White, he said.

Mathur said the nearly 200 page timetable also has Special Supplement on 'wild life', covering important wild life sanctuaries, national parks and Zoological parks in various states of the country.

It also has information regarding vigilance organisation, public grievance machinery and catering services, he said.