CHANDIGARH: The possibility of a faster railway journey between Kalka and Shimla was tested on Wednesday, when a seven-rake trial train was run on the heritage section that snakes through the Shivalik hills.A five-member team from the Kalka station checked where to relocate the signals in case the train speed on these tracks was increased from 22 to 35 kilometres an hour. The team measured each station between Taxal and Shimla from the entry to the exit , to know how much time the engine will take to stop from the point of proposed new maximum speed.Ambala's divisional railway manager Dinesh Kumar said: "The Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) accepted the division's request for this speed trial. We are waiting to get a schedule from the research design scientific organisation (RDSO) for a physical trial before final consent. The RDSO will use a diesel locomotive and, later, a rake for these tests. Railway minister Piyush Goyal had asked the railway board to find out if the travel time on this section could be cut.At some tunnels and curves on this 102-tunnel section, the permissible speed drops to just 8 kmph. Goyal sat with Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur over the matter of increasing both the speed and the frequency of the six trains on this British-era line. The railway minister assured all possible support to the state to reduce the 5-hour journey to a tolerable 3 hours.Going from Kalka to Shimla by road takes 3-odd hours via the 88-km National Highway-5 and 50 more minutes via 104-km State Highway-16 (which covers Baddi). A regular-day train journey, taking into account breakdowns and stoppages, might even take 8 hours in contrast.

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