Indian Railways (IR) has conducted a trial run of India’s longest freight train, “Rudrastra”, which is 4.5 km in length. The trial run was carried out from Ganjkhwaja railway station under the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya (DDU) division of East Central Railway (ECR) in Uttar Pradesh to Garhwa station in Jharkhand, covering a distance of approximately 209 km in around 5 hours, at an average speed of 40.50 km per hour (kmph).
The train comprises a total of 354 wagons, with one rake consisting of 59 wagons, and each wagon loaded with 72 tonnes of freight. It is powered by seven locomotives, with two engines at the front and one with each rake after every 59 wagons. Effectively, the train comprises of six standard rakes (BOXN rakes) coupled into a single formation. Reportedly, freight trains will now be sent from ECR’s DDU division to the Dhanbad division for faster loading and transportation of goods.