N. F. Railway has successfully operated two long haul freight trains "Trishul 1" and "Trishul 2" for the first time from New Guwahati to Teesta Bridge Cabin. Long haul trains are twice or multiple times longer than the normal composition of freight trains. The running of long haul trains will help in reducing the congestion in busy sections thereby increasing the throughput. A standard Bogie Covered goods train formation consists of 42 wagons. Any composition of a goods train more than this is defined as Long Haul train. The constituent trains may be empty or loaded.
The first long haul train "Trishul 1" comprising of 3 freight trains ran with total 128 wagons, 3 Diesel locomotives and 3 crew sets. It was nearly 2 km long. It left New Guwahati at 03:15 hours on 16thFebruary, 2023 and reached Teesta Bridge Cabin at 15:36 hours on the same day. It covered a distance of about 440 kilometres in 12:30 hours at an average speed of 36 Kmph. The second long haul train "Trishul 2" comprising of 3 freight trains ran with total 128 wagons, 2 Diesel locomotives and 2 crew sets. It left New Guwahati at 02:30 hours and reached Teesta Bridge Cabin at 14:40 hours. The long haul train covered a distance of about 440 kilometres in 12:10 hours at an average speed of 36.2 Kmph. In comparison to running of normal freight trains, the long haul trains saved around 3500 liters of fuel and approximately around 30-35 hours of running time.
The success of this pioneer run could help NFR cope with line congestion on rail routes and ever increasing demand of wagons at goods points. It has an added advantage of increasing the speed of rolling stock as a result of reduction in number of trains.
