[S2!!!]

Indian Railways have been transporting cars since quite some time now, but all these were either through Railway's investment or by disjoined private investment. Now, Railways have begun transporting cars by freight trains in association with the private sector as a result of the newly framed policy by the Indian Railways.

The first freight train carrying 280 finished vehicles has been flagged off by Union Railway Minister - D V Sadananda Gowda from Melpakkam near Arakonam, Chennai to the multi-modal logistics park of Container Corporation of India at Khatuwas near Delhi.

The train, AutoLinxSM, is designed by Research Design and Standards Organisation, and is introduced by APL Logistics VASCOR.

A Railway Board member claims that there has been a lot of interest to acquire rakes and register as Auto Freight Transport Operators among private companies. Indian Railways would require approximately 100 rakes by 2020, even if it carries only one-fourth of the finished vehicles by rail.

Maruti has been using rail transportation for over two decades and earlier this year, Indian Railways flagged off its first Flexi-Deck Train.

Source: ET Auto

[V.Narayan]

First step in the right direction. Will help save fuel costs of transporting lakhs of new cars by road to the dealer showrooms. Now the movement to the dealer showrooms by road may only need to be the last mile connection.

[VeluM]

What car manufacturers should do (and probably are already?) is to set up stockyards in collaboration with Indian Railways where these cars can be stored. This way the car only needs to be driven from there to the dealership for delivery, which is similar to what they do even today.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by S2!!!

The first freight train carrying 280 finished vehicles has been flagged off by Union Railway Minister - D V Sadananda Gowda from Melpakkam near Arakonam, Chennai to the multi-modal logistics park of Container Corporation of India at Khatuwas near Delhi.

Any idea which car manufacturer this is or is a mix of manufacturers?

Originally Posted by VeluM

What car manufacturers should do (and probably are already?) is to set up stockyards in collaboration with Indian Railways where these cars can be stored. This way the car only needs to be driven from there to the dealership for delivery, which is similar to what they do even today.

Maruti Suzuki has that set up for a while now . They have a massive stockyard, although it is not set up with the help of Railways, outside Tumkur. The cars are unloaded at a nearby station and driven to the stockyard which is a distance of around 5-6 kms and then loaded onto trucks and taken to other parts.

[S2!!!]

Originally Posted by tharian

Any idea which car manufacturer this is or is a mix of manufacturers?

I'm not a 100% sure but I assume the trains carried a vehicle mix from different manufacturers and not just by a single manufacturer. An article in Business Line mentions:

Trial runs were conducted in close collaboration with four automotive OEMs: Ford, Honda, Hyundai, and Renault-Nissan.