There will also be a waiting lounge at the stations for premium ticket holders.
Ghaziabad:
After the priority stretch 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 during a demonstration run of the high-speed RRTS, also known as the RapidX project, and got a first look at the coaches of the train. Apart from the reclining seats and large windows, the high-tech coaches will have digital screens showing passengers where the train is on its route at any given point of time, as well as the current speed of the train.
Each rake will have six coaches, one premium and five standard. There will be a higher fare for the premium coaches and one of the standard coaches will be reserved for women. Over 50% of the staff will be 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 be 15 minutes to begin with. The trains will stop at each station for 30 seconds.
The RRTS will be different from both the normal railway system and the Metro network because it will be India’s first railway system to have a maximum operational speed of 160 kilometres per hour. There will be 14 stations on the route and the average speed is expected to be 100 kmph. The maximum speed reached by the train during the demonstration run was 146 kmph.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 17-km Sahibabad to Duhai Depot section of the corridor, which has a total of five stations – Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Duhai and Duhai Depot. It will take 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 taken between Meerut and Delhi in a mail express train is one-and-a-half hours and two hours in a local train, but the RRTS will only take 55-60 minutes.
The entire section is expected to be completed in June 2025. The foundation stone of the project had been laid by PM Modi on March 8, 2019.
