Stiff competition from Rlys awaits low-cost airlines

New Delhi: Low-cost carriers like SpiceJet, IndiGo and Air Deccan may have to face stiff competition from the railways at least on two sectors.
Speed of Shatabdi Express on short-distance would be increased by the Railways to win away passengers flying in budget carriers.
Railways would increase the speed of Delhi-Lucknow Shatabdi from 120 km/hour to 150 km/hour, reducing travel time by an hour. A similar move is expected in Delhi-Chandigarh, Ahemedabad-Mumbai and Bangalore-Chennai routes soon.
Lucknow Shatabdi starts its journey at 6:15 am daily from Delhi. It reaches Lucknow at 12:30 pm. With the increase in speed, it would reach to Lucknow by 11:30 am, an official in Railways said.
Ministry sources, however, say that competition with low-cost airline is not the only motivating factor. “Indian railways want to compete with foreign rail networks, which run high speed trains. French TGV, for instance, runs trains at 515 km an hour. Japanese Shinkansen, also known as the Bullet, runs at over 300 km an hour. We also want to enhance efficiency and speed of our system,” he said.
28/01/08 Rajat Guha & Nirbhay Kumar/Economic Times

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Categories: Low Cost General Jan 2008