Spanish Talgo to hold fresh trials next week
After a not-so-successful trial of the Spanish-made Talgo train in August, the Indian Railways plans to test the train between New Delhi and Mumbai again.
“We will be holding trials for Spanish Talgo next week again,” said Shailendra Singh, executive director, mechanical engineering, coaching in New Delhi on Friday.
In the earlier trials, Talgo was tested at a speed of 115km per hour (kmph) between Barailey and Moradabad, at 130-150kmph between Mathura and Palwal and at 18kmph between New Delhi and Mumbai. However, the last leg was affected due to water-logging on tracks, which delayed the train.
The Indian Railways is looking for options to increase the speed of its passenger and freight trains to decongest its network and accommodate the ever-increasing volumes.
Singh was speaking to reporters at the ‘International Conference on Technology for Ultra High Speed Rolling Stock’, jointly organised by the Institute of Rolling Stock Engineers and the Indian Railways Service of Mechanical Engineers Association.
The seminar was organised by the railways to explore ultra-high speed technology available across the world. The conference saw participation from HyperLoop Transport Technology (US), Quadralev (US), Talgo (Spain), RTRI (Japan), Siemens (Germany), Knorr Bremse (Germany) and Prose (Switzerland).
InfraCircle reported on 3 June about India’s plan to bring together Maglev train manufacturers to fulfill its need for speed.
“We will have two more trials from next week. The trials are for assessing the time between Delhi and Mumbai. These are the same trials that couldn’t go as planned the last time due to rain. The target for covering the distance is 12 hours. Though we have already achieved 12 hours, we just want to repeat and see if it can be achieved in less time. We want to come to India and manufacture it here. This is our idea, but with no transfer of technology,” said Elena Garcia de Rus, technical manager of Talgo.
Talgo is a Spanish firm manufacturing semi-high-speed (160-250kmph) and high-speed (350kmph) passenger trains. Talgo has lightweight aluminum-bodied coaches with special features, which make these coaches travel 20% faster on curves.
At present, India’s fastest train is Gatimaan Express, which runs at a speed of 160kmph.
Experts believe that decongesting the network should be given preference.
“The most important thing for Indian railways today is to decongest the diamond quadrilateral (the rail network connecting the four metros–Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai). The capacity constraint on those lines needs to be addressed. So debottlenecking of capacity is of utmost importance,” said former Indian Railways’ Accounts Service officer Akhileshwar Sahay.
He added that apart from looking for high-speed trains, the railways should also look at enhancing line capacity.
http://www.vccircle.com/infracircle/spanish-talgo-hold-fresh-trials-next-week/
@anant_s I am getting a feeling that Indian Railways has actually made up its mind to use Talgo?