The mighty veteran Purulia Express serving for decades, daily commuters' lifeline and witness to a Rising Bengal! - Soumyadip Mahato

Kolkata Raj (1969-130kmph) & Mumbai Raj (1972-120kmph), were the the initial premium and superfast trains having higher operating speeds, average speeds and lesser stoppages than the other long distance fast express trains any where on IR.
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The concept of SF trains with non ac trains was launched by IR in 1976 and many SFs were introduced in next 2-4 years under tenure of different RMs. Large number of SFs were introduced notably TN, AP, KK, Swaraj, Geetanjali, Coromandal, Minar, NE, Navjeevan, Ashram, Mandor, Vaigai, Pallavan, etc covering almost every nook and...
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corner of IR. These trains had much less number of stops, very high priority and had a booked speed of 100-110 kmph i.e. in general 10kmph higher than the booked speed (usu 90-100 kmph) other trains on the route and hence gave as avg speed of 55-65 kmph i.e. about 10kmph higher than other express trains on the route. There was one stoppage after every 150-400 km on an average in the beginning which gradually got diluted to a stoppage every 50-150 km today due to political pressure. The trend continued with Pushpak, Himgiri, and several others were introduced. Today the term SF has lost its sanctity, and more than 50% of express trains on IR network are SF just because avg speed is 55kmph irrespective of the number of stops. Today many superfasts have 2-3 stops every 100 km as against 1 stop every 200km during the initial phase.
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During 90s IR had once mulled to run non stop trains between major metros in order to give faster connectivity, but the trains were never introduced.
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Mr Scindia brought concept of very fast intercity travel with introduction of Shatabdi Express which in general were fastest even beating Rajdhani running on the same route. It was branded as train for riches at that time, but the concept was right, evem today shatabdies are being introduced. Even the proposed Tejas are also an upgraded variant of Shatabdi.
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In this matter Mr Nitish Kumar deserve appreciation for 2 good concepts, to bring the branded, faster & exclusive short distance and long distance travel experience like Shatabdi & Rajdhani Trains to common man by introducing Jan Shatabdi & Sampark Kranti trains. JS was given distinct livery and concept was satisfactorily implemented. Concept of SK trains was not properly implemented, as they were supposed to be fastest connection with national capital (after Rajdhani/Shat), but actually are not so. SKs were not given the priority they deserved and no distinct livery was given.