There will also be a waiting lounge at the stations for premium ticket holders.
Ghaziabad:
After the priority section of the Delhi-Meerut Rapid Rail Transport System (RRTS) is inaugurated on Friday, passengers can look forward to an aircraft-like seating arrangement in the coaches, which have comfortable, reclining seats.
NDTV took a ride on a demonstration run of the high-speed RRTS, also known as the RapidX project, and got a first look at the train’s carriages. In addition to reclining seats and large windows, the high-tech coaches will feature digital screens that show passengers where the train is at any given time on its route, as well as the train’s current speed.
Each rake has six coaches, one premium and five standard. There will be a higher rate for the premium coaches and one of the standard coaches will be reserved for women. More than 50% of the workforce will consist of women and to ensure employment for local residents, preference will be given to people living between Delhi and Meerut.
There will also be a waiting lounge at the stations for premium ticket holders. For passengers, the first train will run on Saturday and the frequency will initially be 15 minutes. The trains stop at each station for 30 seconds.
The RRTS will be different from both the normal rail system and the Metro network as it will be India’s first rail system with a maximum operating speed of 160 kilometers per hour. There will be 14 stations on the route and the average speed is expected to be 100 km/h. The maximum speed the train reached during the demonstration run was 146 km/h.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 17 km Sahibabad-Duhai Depot section of the corridor, which has a total of five stations – Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Duhai and Duhai Depot. It takes 15-17 minutes to cover this distance.
The entire corridor of the Rs 30,274-crore project will be 82 km long and stretch from Sarai Kale Khan station in Delhi to Modipuram in Meerut. The time between Meerut and Delhi in a postal express train is one and a half hours and in a local train two hours, but the RRTS takes only 55-60 minutes.
The entire process is expected to be completed in June 2025. The foundation stone of the project was laid by Prime Minister Modi on March 8, 2019.
