Railways bids goodbye to ‘dark blue’ colour scheme, to repaint coaches in new ‘brown beige’ colour

In a major revamp, Indian Railways is set to change the look and repaint the ‘dark blue’ coaches of Mail and Express trains to a new colour scheme – ‘brown and beige’.

The newly-painted Delhi-Pathankot Express with 16 coaches will be the first train to be rolled out with the new look. The new colour scheme was developed by the in-house team of Northern Railway.

The colour of premium trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto, however, will not be changed. Only Mail/Express service with conventional coaches manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai will be donning the new colour.

Besides, special service trains like Tejas and Gatimaan Express will also continue with the existing colour.

“A complete makeover of coaches was long overdue and the new colour scheme was applied in trains after it was finally approved by Railways Minister Piyush Goyal,” a senior Railways Ministry official told news agency IANS.

It was in the 1990s that the new colour scheme of dark blue was introduced for Mail/Express coaches, replacing the brick red colour which was in use for decades.

The national transporter now has a daunting task of repainting about 30,000 coaches in the new colour scheme at hand.

Railways have been taking steps to revamp its network across the country and improve passenger experience. The makeover of coaches for a more pleasing travel experience is one such step.

“The change of colour is part of the Railways’ efforts to make passengers’ experience a pleasant one,” the official said.

He further said besides the exterior, steps have been taken to improve the interiors of the coaches with additional facilities.

“The replacement of all toilets with bio-toilets, providing mobile chargers at each berth, comfortable seats are some of the changes undertaken in trains. In fact, a provision has also been activated to solicit passengers’ response and suggestions for improving service,” he added.