New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) Due to a shortage of passenger locomotives, freight locomotives with lower speeds are being attached to passenger trains, leading to delays of several hours, Railways records revealed.
The Railway Ministry, however, said that it has stepped up efforts to enhance locomotive production with the approval of 492 passenger locomotives in 2026-27 and 187 in 2027-28 totalling 679 in two years.
“The 2026-27 programme includes 326 WAP-7 locomotives and 166 WAP-7 locos. Besides these productions in the pipeline, there is a rapid adoption of modern trainsets and improvement in utilisation of existing assets,” a senior official from the Ministry said.
He added that train operations have increased manifold in the last 12 years and Indian Railways is making all efforts to ensure a comfortable and safer journey for all sections of passengers.
Official records have registered several instances in which shortages of coaching locomotives resulted in passenger trains being run with freight locomotives that have lower speeds. This has caused a loss of running time and operational delays in the trains.
Officials also confirmed that an average of 80 to 100 such cases are reported every month from various railway zones across the country.
In one of the recent instances, operation of Train no 11044 (Ballia – Dadar Central Express) was affected on September 3, 2026 for 5 hours 28 minutes due to a shortage of the required coaching locomotive, records revealed.
The train was supposed to get a passenger locomotive, WAP-4, which can run at over 130 kmph. However, due to non-availability of a coaching loco, North Eastern Railways zone arranged a 100 kmph-fit goods locomotive.
“The train subsequently suffered loss on run in the Bina–Khandwa section between 13:26 hrs and 00:59 hrs. The incident resulted in a recorded detention of 328 minutes (5 hours 28 minutes),” sources said.
As per September 2026 data, Indian Railways has around 17,900 locomotives, out of which around 13,700 are electric and approximately 4,200 are diesel locomotives.
Out of these 13,700 electric ones, approximately 3,400 are passenger locomotives (various versions of Wide/broad-gauge AC or WAP), while the rest are goods locomotives (Wide/ broad-gauge AC Goods or WAG) for freight operations and related operational requirements.
Out of 4,200 diesel locomotives, 284 are used for passenger links, while the overwhelming majority are used for freight, shunting, departmental and other duties.
According to Indian Railways’ data, in 2013-14, it had 5,633 diesel and 4,823 electric locomotives totalling 10,456. Out of 4823 electric locomotives, 1,371 were passenger locomotives. However, the 2013-14 data doesn’t specify the total number of diesel passenger locomotives.
Officials said that since the pace of railway electrification increased since 2014 onwards, the production of diesel locomotives gradually slowed down, and electric engines gained momentum.
Several other instances of the use of freight locomotives for passenger trains have been reported from almost all railway zones in the country.
On September 21, 2026, at least two passenger trains were documented as being operated with WAG-9 freight locomotives having a 100 kmph running capacity because of shortages of coaching locomotives with higher running capacities.
In one of the instances, train no 14102 (Kanpur Central–Prayagraj Sangam InterCity Express was provided with a freight locomotive WAG 9 having a running capacity of 100 kmph.
Sources said that as per schedule, the train was supposed to have WAP 1 engine, which has a maximum running capacity of 130 kmph.
“Due to shortage of passenger locomotives, the rail administration has to substitute it with freight engines. This led to a delay of at least 30 minutes as the train operated at 100 kmph in sections where the speed permission was 130,” a railway source said.
Another incident on the same day shows the operational consequences of substituting a freight locomotive for a passenger locomotive.
Train 17601, which runs from Kacheguda in Telangana to Shri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, was provided a WAG-9 freight locomotive instead of its planned WAP-7 passenger engine because of a shortage. This also resulted in a detention, impacting the train’s overall punctuality.
“The production of locomotives has increased manifold in the last 12 years. However, years of neglect of several crucial manufacturing activities before 2014, which caused a severe shortage of locomotives, wagons and coaches, will be compensated in due course of time,” a senior zonal railway official said. PTI JP JP SKY
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