Indian Railways is going to remove all non-AC coaches from mail and express trains, replacing them with a newly designed AC coach. The railways have decided that barring slow-moving and local trains, all other trains will have AC-coaches only. A new AC coach has been designed by Indian Railways, which is being manufactured at Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala in Punjab. The newly designed AC three-tier coaches will have 83 berths, in place of the 72 berths in the current three-tier sleeper coaches.
The fare for these coaches will be less than current three-tier AC coaches but will be more than the sleeper coaches. The category of fares will be introduced after this coach is added to the trains replacing the sleeper coaches. Once trains start traveling at an average speed of 130 kmph, non-AC coaches will create technical and other problems because of wind and dust. Therefore, the Railways will gradually phase out all non-AC coaches in about 1,900 mail and express trains. This will be a big exercise and it will be done in a phased manner.
The electrical units will be moved and the cabinets used to keep blankets, pillows and bedsheets will be removed. This creates space for installing the additional berths at both ends of the coaches. The passenger and local rains will remain non-AC, but those are also being replaced with MEMU trains. High-speed rail corridors are being planned in Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Varanasi, Mumbai-Nagpur, Ahmedabad-Delhi, Chennai-Mysuru, Delhi-Amritsar, Mumbai-Hyderabad, and Varanasi-Kolkata routes. These could either be high speed, meaning over 300 kmph or semi high-speed, which is more than 160 kmph. The final decision on speed will be taken once the feasibility reports are submitted.