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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Goods wagons or freight cars

The number of freight car or goods wagons was 205,596 on 31 March 1951 and reached the maximum number 405,183 on 31 March 1980 after which it started declining and was 219,931 on 31 March 2010. The number is far shorter than the requirement and the Indian Railways keeps losing freight traffic to road. Indian Railways carried 93 million tonnes of goods in 1950-51 and it increased to 892 tonnes in 2009-10.

Goods Wagons

However, its share in goods traffic is much lower than road traffic. In 1951, its share was 65% and the share of road was 35%. Now the shares have been reversed and the share of railways has declined to 30% and the share of road has increased to 70%.

A freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (UIC) hauled by one or more locomotives on a railway, ultimately transporting cargo between two points as part of the logistics chain. Trains may haul bulk material, intermodal containers, general freight or specialized freight in purpose-designed cars.

When considered in terms of ton-miles (tonne-kilometers) hauled per unit of consumed energy, rail transport is more efficient than other means of transportation. Additional economies are often realized with bulk commodities (e.g., coal), especially when hauled over long distances. However, rail freight is often subject to transshipment costs, which may exceed that of operating the train itself, a factor that practices such as containerization aim to minimize. Bulk shipments are less affected by transshipment costs, with distances as short as 30 kilometers (18.6 mi) sufficient to make rail transport economically viable. However, shipment by rail is not as flexible as by highway, which has resulted in much freight being hauled by truck, even over long distances.

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