The Ministry of Railways has released its new All India Railway Time Table known as “TRAINS AT A GLANCE (TAG)” which has come into effect from 1st July, 2011.  In addition to this All India Time table, all the 17 zonal Railways have also released their zonal railway time tables which too have come into effect from 1st July, 2011. This Time Table includes the new class of trains which were announced in this year’s Railway Budget namely, Double Decker AC trains, Vivek Expres, Kavi Guru Express and Rajya Rani Express.

The salient features of the All India Railway Time Table i.e. TAG are as under :

1.      Encouraged by the public response over the past few years all the user-friendly features of Trains at a Glance viz. how to read a table, route map, station index,  trains between important stations,  station code index, Train number index,  Train name index, has been retained.
2.      Five digit numbering scheme for train services has come into force from 20th December, 2010. This has been necessitated as the numbers in four digit numbering scheme got exhausted as also to enable capture of all types of passenger train services viz.  Duronto, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and other Mail/Express services, sub-urban, holiday specials, etc. on Indian Railways. The five-digit train numbering has been accordingly indicated in Trains at a Glance.
3.      Colour coding scheme adopted for various categories of trains: (a) Pink for Rajdhani Express, Shatabdi Express, Jan Shatabdi Express, Garib Rath Express and Duronto Express (b) Yellow for Double Decker services and other superfast trains (d) blue/white for other mail/Express trains.
4.      New category of services viz. Double Decker services, Rajya Rani services, Vivek Express, Kavi Guru Express have been included.
5.      Commercial information of passenger use and interest viz. advance reservation period, reservation through internet, refund rules and rail travel concessions have been suitably updated. New addition to the fare chart is the fare for AC and mixed type of Duronto services.
6.      Information regarding Vigilance organization, Public grievance machinery, disaster management and catering services have been incorporated.
7.      The Metro Railway, Kolkata has been added in the list of Zonal railways. The website addresses of all Zonal railways have been added this time.

Category-wise details:

    I.        Duronto trains: Duronto Train services were conceptualized in the year 2009-2010. At present 23 pairs of Duronto services are operational. In this year’s Railway Budget 09 pairs of Duronto services have been proposed, which are as under:
1.        Allahabad-Mumbai AC Duronto (bi-weekly)
2.        Pune- Ahmedabad AC Duronto (tri-weekly)
3.        Sealdah – Puri non AC Duronto (tri-weekly)
4.        Secunderabad- Visakhapatnam AC Duronto (Tri-weekly)
5.        Madurai- Chennai AC Duronto (Bi-weekly)
6.        Chennai - Thiruvananthapuram AC Duronto (Bi-weekly)
7.        Mumbai Central- New Delhi AC Duronto (Bi-weekly)
8.        Nizamuddin-Ajmer non-AC Duronto(Bi-weekly)
9.        Shalimar – Patna Duronto (Tri-weekly)
  II.        Double Decker AC:

1.        Jaipur- Delhi
2.        Ahmedabad-Mumbai

III.        Shatabdi Express:

1.        Pune -Secunderabad
2.        Jaipur-Agra
3.        Ludhiana – Delhi

IV.        Vivek Express: To mark the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda which will be celebrated in 2013, “Vivek Express” are being proposed as under:
1.        Dibrugarh- Thiruvanthapuram-Kanniyakumari Express (weekly) via
2.        Kokrajhar
3.        Dwarka-Tuticorin Express (weekly) via Wadi
4.        Howrah-Mangalore Express (Weekly) via Palghat
5.        Bandra (T)- Jammu Tawi Express (Weekly) via Marwar-Degana- Ratangarh-
6.        Jakhal- Ludhiana

  V.        Kavi Guru Express: As a homage to the great poet Kavi Guru Ravindra Nath Tagore, it is proposed to run the following Kavi Guru Express trains:

1.        Howrah-Azimganj Express (daily) via Sagardighi
2.        Guwahati- Jaipur Express (weekly)
3.        Howrah-Bolpur Express (daily)
4.        Howrah-Porbander Express (weekly)

VI.        Rajya Rani Express:  A new set of trains connecting state capitals with important cities/towns in those states are as under:

1.        Sawantwadi Road - Mumbai Express (daily)
2.        Saharsa - Patna Intercity Express (daily)
3.        Meerut- Lucknow Intercity Express (daily)
4.        Mysore - Bangalore Express (daily)
5.        Damoh - Bhopal Intercity Express (daily)
6.        Silghat – Dhubri Intercity Express (tri-weekly via Guwahati – Kokrajhar - Jogighopa)
7.        Bankura – Howrah Express (tri-weekly)
8.        Nilambur Road – Thiruvananthapuram Link Express (daily)
9.        Jharsuguda – Bhubaneswar Express (tri-weekly)
10.      Manmad – Mumbai Express (daily) via Nasik