NEW DELHI: With Railways working to increase speed of trains, Spanish-made Talgo, whose trial run is happening in India, has become the fastest train in the country by clocking a speed of 180 km/hr by covering 84 km in 38 minutes. At present, Gatimaan Express is the fastest train at 160 km/hr.
The trial was conducted by Railways on Mathura-Palwal route, surpassing the record of Gatimaan Express. The third trial is slated to take place on Mumbai-Delhi section in August.
Talgo train successfully completed its trial run Wednesday by clocking 180 km/hr due to its light and advanced technology and it covered 84 km in 38 minutes between Mathura and Palwal, said Divisional Railway Manager, Agra, Prabhash Kumar.
The trials on the Mathura-Palwal section will continue for a month and now the next trial run will be carried out by keeping sand bags to mimic weight of passengers in order to check the train's condition on turns. The maximum speed of Gatimaan Express is 160 km/hr, Shatabdi Express 150 km/hr and Rajdhani Express is 130 km/hr.
On the first day of the trial on July 9 between Mathura and Palwal, the train had clocked 120 km/hr following which it was decided that its speed would be increased by 10 km/hr everyday.
If trials of Talgo trains are successful, it can be game changer as the company claims that these coaches can run at 200 kmph on the existing rails without any infrastructure changes. 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 12 hours as compared to 17 hours 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.