Railways to start trial of Talgo trains on Delhi-Mumbai section from August one

By Express News Service   Published: 21st July 2016 

A vendor walks near the Spanish train Talgo after it arrives at Moradabad Railway Station during its first trial run between Bareilly and Moradabd on Sunday. | PTI

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways will start the trials of Spanish-made Talgo trains on the busiest Delhi-Mumbai section from August 1 after its successful trials on Mathura-Palwal, where it achieved 180 kmph with fully loaded capacity Thursday. 

The trials on Delhi-Mumbai section will be done at a maximum speed of 150 kmph for nearly a month before a report is submitted to Railway Board. At present Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani runs at an average speed of 80 kmph covering 1388 km distance between the two cities in 16 hours. Talgo coaches can cut the journey time between Delhi and Mumbai by 4 hours 30 minutes. 

“The primary results so far are similar to as claimed by the company and we will make a detailed report on other technicalities. Next week we will conduct trials of emergency braking distance system which means distance it takes to stop after applying emergency break at 160 kmph,” said a senior railway officer monitoring the trials.

With Railways working to increase speed of trains, Talgo trains can be a game changer if they succeed in achieving claimed targets of running on existing rails at 180 kmph without any major infrastructure changes. At present, Gatimaan Express is the fastest train at 160 km/hr. 

The cost of a Talgo coach is Rs 5 crore and it requires minimal infrastructure upgrade to run on Indian rails. Talgo envisages the journey between Delhi and Mumbai can be completed in about 11 hour 40 minutes as compared to 16 hours 10 minutes at present.

The Talgo coaches can run on curved rails without decelerating speed. Besides reducing travel time, Talgo's lighter trains consume 30 percent less energy. The Railways has set up a Mobility Directorate to work on strategies to increase speed of trains. Gatimaan Express – India's first semi-high speed that clocks 160 kmph, was launched on the Delhi-Agra route in April.