Indian Railways Thread

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 17 Jul 2015 23:52

Earlier moves to redevelop the stations and transforming them into world-class facilities had met "little success".
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 102572.cms

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 18 Jul 2015 04:33

Saar, the answer is in the very link you posted:

Earlier moves to redevelop the stations and transforming them into world-class facilities had met "little success".

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu had observed that the existing processes for redevelopment are time-consuming as there are several stages involved.

They include 'inception and pre-feasibility report', appointment of architect, technical consultants, financial and legal consultants, in-principle approval of local authorities, request for qualification, shortlisting of bidders, and request for technical proposals.

They forgot to add one last thing to that list: paying for the improvements. But as we say in Chennai, 'dabbu ledhu' - no money, thanks to successive popular (or populist) RMs who were focussed on running trains to their own states/towns.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 18 Jul 2015 04:39

onlee if you put dabbu, you get dabbu

Karthik S · Post by **Karthik S** » 21 Jul 2015 01:17

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ind ... 148503.cms

NEW DELHI: The Japan International Cooperation Agency today submitted the final report on the feasibility study of the proposed high-speed rail system on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route to the Railway Minister, estimating the ambitious project would cost Rs 988,050 million.
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SSundar · Post by **SSundar** » 21 Jul 2015 02:19

Karthik S wrote:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ind ... 148503.cms

NEW DELHI: The Japan International Cooperation Agency today submitted the final report on the feasibility study of the proposed high-speed rail system on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route to the Railway Minister, estimating the ambitious project would cost Rs 988,050 million.
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$15 Billion at current exchange rates.
Rs. 2800 one-way = ~$44.00 at current exchange rates.

Compare with Boston->Baltimore (579 KM) on regular train service - ~$101.00 for the lowest priced ticket.

This seems like an extremely good deal.

SSundar · Post by **SSundar** » 21 Jul 2015 02:31

^^ Similarly, Beijing->Shanghai (1318 KM) fare is RMB 933 for First Class. That comes to $59 for the same distance as Mumbai->Ahmedabad.

Karthik S · Post by **Karthik S** » 21 Jul 2015 03:18

Yes it is considering that the railways need not investment money from it's own budget as Japan has offered to fund the project. By 2024, there will be many people who can afford to travel in the bullet train as estimated in the report.

Rishirishi · Post by **Rishirishi** » 21 Jul 2015 03:30

One has to factor in a lot of things. By having cheap mode and fast mode of transport one can spread out the population and concentrate it on unfertile land.
typical cost in china is about USD 20 million per km. India would require to build about 10 000 Km of it to connect all major areas. The total cost would be about 200 Billion. Such infrastructure would change the dynamics of India. With the size of Indian economy, it can be done. One would have to make the investment and just write it off for the collective good and charge prices not too different from now. It would change the entire country.

Imagine the possibility to travel between Mumbai and Surat in less then 1 hour or Delhi-Jaipur in less then 1,5 hours

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 23 Jul 2015 04:41

arshyam wrote: Railways to suffer Rs 130 crore due to fire at RRI cabin in Itarsi - PTI, ET
It will take about 35 days to restore the normalcy on the section as the RRI room has been gutted, Railway Board Member (Traffic) Ajay Shukla said here today after returning from Itarsi.
This is serious, given Itarsi's strategic location in IR's network. A lot of trains are going to be delayed while they fix this, and per posts on IRFCA, even this one month estimate is optimistic.

Interesting - the above article was posted on Jun 23, and today, Jul 22, is this update:

New signalling control room at Itarsi becomes operational - PTI, ET

NEW DELHI: Train movement through Itarsi junction became normal today with the new Route Relay Interlocking (RRI) panel, an automatic signalling system, functioning effectively.

Train movement was badly affected for the last 34 days as the RRI panel was totally burnt due to a major fire incident causing severe disruption in the service.

It was a mammoth task for installation of the new RRI system at Itarsi after the fire incident, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Itarsi, situated strategically in the central part of India linking North-South and East-West parts of the country through trains, is a crucial junction in Bhopal Division of West Central Railway. Itarsi station plays a key role for the train movement between Bombay-Bhopal, Bhopal-Nagpur and Bombay-Jabalpur-Allahabad route.

As per normal schedule, about 145 scheduled Mail Express and Passenger trains and 50-60 freight trains are dealt with at Itarsi station in both directions daily.

The destruction of RRI immediately resulted in much reduced running of only 35 trains per day though Itarsi through manual operation.

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/art ... aign=cppst

That was good execution, and on time for a change. WCR used this opportunity to also do some yard remodeling work and have operationalised through tracks for trains that skip this station (source: IRFCA). That should save 5-10 min for Rajdhani expresses that don't have a halt here, and free up precious platform lines that earlier had to be kept free for these trains to pass through.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 23 Jul 2015 10:57

arshyam wrote:
{quote="arshyam"}
Railways to suffer Rs 130 crore due to fire at RRI cabin in Itarsi - PTI, ET
It will take about 35 days to restore the normalcy on the section as the RRI room has been gutted, Railway Board Member (Traffic) Ajay Shukla said here today after returning from Itarsi.

This is serious, given Itarsi's strategic location in IR's network. A lot of trains are going to be delayed while they fix this, and per posts on IRFCA, even this one month estimate is optimistic.{/quote}

Interesting - the above article was posted on Jun 23, and today, Jul 22, is this update:

New signalling control room at Itarsi becomes operational - PTI, ET

the old premises are under new management only.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 23 Jul 2015 15:58

They had 1600 Railway Engineers working day and night to restore traffic. Lot of trains were cancelled which was inevitable as manual routing is difficult. I am sure Railway would do some O&M study and come up with some solution as It would prove to be a choke point if it gets disrupted. I think North -South and East-West axis needs to be separated.

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 23 Jul 2015 18:32

chetak wrote:the old premises are under new management only.

That was my first thought too, but Itarsi is too critical a junction for them to go slow with. Anyway, good that it's done, it should reduce overcrowding in trains, as the people booked on cancelled trains had no option but to board the few that were operated through the junction, causing a lot of hardship.

chaanakya wrote:They had 1600 Railway Engineers working day and night to restore traffic. Lot of trains were cancelled which was inevitable as manual routing is difficult. I am sure Railway would do some O&M study and come up with some solution as It would prove to be a choke point if it gets disrupted. I think North -South and East-West axis needs to be separated.

True. But there is no easy solution for separation saar. Even if the N-S and E-W tracks are separated by grade (one going on top like a flyover), there will still need to be cross connections for trains that use them (f.e. southbound from Patna, or Mumbai bound from Delhi). It will merely move the points a little bit. And Itarsi being at the centre of the rail n/w, it is bound to have very high traffic. Apparently, having a fully redundant RRI system is prohibitively expensive, since all the cabling will need to be replicated for true redundancy. What they currently have at some other junctions is to have multiple points from where the points can be operated, but using the same cabling mechanism. Hopefully, they have done this here as well. The problem still remains, as it does on other choke points on the network: Mughalsarai, Bhusawal, Guntakal, Vijaywada, Vadodara, etc.

The only thing to do is have alternative routes, which Itarsi does not have currently, which was one of the main reasons for such widespread cancellation. I hope at least after this, Mr. Prabhu looks into expediting the Akola-Khandwa-Mhow-Indore line gauge conversion into BG, so it can form an alternate route connecting to Ujjain/Bhopal. Likewise, the Jabalpur-Gondia-Chandrapur line connecting to the E-W trunk line at Gondia and N-S trunk at Chandrapur. Itarsi needs to be ring fenced this way so there are alternatives in all directions. The latter will also cut short distance when travelling from Patna/Varanasi to points in the south, as tne entire Itarsi-Nagpur-Wardha stretch can be completely bypassed.

Karthik S · Post by **Karthik S** » 23 Jul 2015 22:46

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/asia/aroun ... 1507210038

A joint Japanese-Indian survey team recommended July 20 that New Delhi adopt a Shinkansen-like system for its planned rapid-transit railway line that will link Mumbai with Ahmedabad.

The task force’s report, submitted to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, covered the 500-kilometer route between the western Indian cities. The members compared high-speed rail systems from Japan, France and other countries before making their recommendation.

The team concluded that India should install dedicated tracks for high-speed, lighter-weight trains where all the cars are equipped with individual motors. The tracks should also be used to transmit electrical signals to the moving trains.

Although the report does not specifically name Japan’s Shinkansen, the nation’s bullet train system meets all the recommended conditions stipulated for the Indian line.

For example, the train carriages for France’s TGV rapid-transit railway are pulled by powered cab cars.

The plan under consideration calls for India’s high-speed trains to travel at speeds up to 350 kph, while their maximum commercial speed will be set at around 320 kph. Construction of the line is scheduled to start in 2017, with completion set for 2023.

The task force estimated the cost of building a Japanese-style system would run 980 billion rupees (1.92 trillion yen, or $15.44 billion). The Indian government will soon begin looking for ways to raise the funding.

The south Asian country is planning a total of seven high-speed rail lines, including the Mumbai-Ahmedabad link, to span the nation. Other countries, such as France and China, have also expressed interest in joining the project.

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 23 Jul 2015 23:18

Karthik S wrote:http://ajw.asahi.com/article/asia/aroun ... 1507210038

The task force estimated the cost of building a Japanese-style system would run 980 billion rupees (1.92 trillion yen, or $15.44 billion). The Indian government will soon begin looking for ways to raise the funding.

₹980Bn = 9,80,00,00,00,000 = ₹98,000 Crores

Much more than initial estimates of ₹60,000 crores! And the bolded part is interesting - how are they going to raise funding? Does JICA or any Japanese agency intend to lend the entire amount, since Mr. Prabhu said he wasn't investing any IR funds into this?

I still maintain what I said earlier, plan for HSR, but first aggressively build up existing IR infra. It's a better investment as it will generate enormous amount of local economic activity and employment. That itself will grow our economy and impart skills training. Whereas a fully foreign funded HSR will be on terms of using their tech and know-how, so we cannot employ as many local contractors. Once our economy hits the $5-6 Tn mark, we can take a serious look at HSR.

A quick back of the envelope calculation reveals: 10,122KM * ₹10CR/km *2 (2 tracks, 2 already exist) = ₹ 2,02,440 crores. Compare this with ₹ 60,000 crores just for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR, which is only around 500km in length! Extrapolating this further, a potential Delhi-Chennai HSR could cost upwards of ₹ 2,19,000 crores! Instead, with the right investment, the funds could be put to better use and build an entire diamond of 4 tracks. Also, IR could upgrade this quadrilateral to 150kmph throughout with existing home-grown expertise. If that is too expensive, upgrade 2 tracks to 150kmph, and the remaining 2 at 130, allowing for geographic constraints like ghat sections. For better returns, such a project needs to be made time bound, with a completion date of 5 years. While this may sound aggressive, a determined push can make this a reality and also spur a lot of skill development due to involvement of more local contractors working in parallel to get the project done within this time frame.

SSundar · Post by **SSundar** » 23 Jul 2015 23:42

arshyam wrote: I still maintain what I said earlier, plan for HSR, but first aggressively build up existing IR infra. It's a better investment as it will generate enormous amount of local economic activity and employment. That itself will grow our economy and impart skills training. Whereas a fully foreign funded HSR will be on terms of using their tech and know-how, so we cannot employ as many local contractors. Once our economy hits the $5-6 Tn mark, we can take a serious look at HSR.

Saar, both can be done together, no? HSR with videshi funding and DFC/Upgraded Express Speeds on desi investment. A nation that has been held back for 68 years can go at it simultaneously as long as the money bottleneck is addressed.

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 23 Jul 2015 23:56

SSundar wrote:A nation that has been held back for 68 years can go at it simultaneously as long as the money bottleneck is addressed.

This is the key isn't it? And will a videshi investor in HSR be willing to commit to a project with his funds only, and nothing from India? Let's say for argument's sake, GoI (not IR) will put up 10% of the project cost - that itself is a staggering ₹9800 crores - money better spent on IR's capex to enhance its track capacity. That amount can add 1000km of new track @ ₹10CR/Km.

If the metro rail funding in various cities is anything to go by, a multi-lateral agency like JICA seems to fund around 50-60% of the total cost, so in the above scenario, GoI's contribution could be much higher.

If Modi can pull it off, all the power to him. But I am concerned about the upgradation of certain IR routes announced in the budget - it mentioned speed upgrades, but not enough on quadrupling. That is a must.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 24 Jul 2015 00:15

IR has no significant capital outlays on HSR building in the 2015-19 period, merely spending on preliminary groundwork. Suresh Prabhu has already provided a detailed breakdown of his priorities in the most recent railway budget.
Highlights of the Railway Budget 2015-16
Network decongestion, network expansion+electrification, safety, rolling stock and station development, combine to get more than 10x (Rs.722,000crore, or $115 billion) the spending on HSR.

My bet is that the major HSR outlays will be in the 2020-2024 timeframe. It requires early feasibility study and planning at least 5 years in advance, which is what gets some investment in this 5 year period. We are doing exactly what the Chinese did - first plow in money into improving base infrastructure and average speed, while planning and investing ahead in small amounts for HSR. Once the baseline investments yield far greater returns due to much improved operational efficiency, reinvest the sizeable gains into HSR in the subsequent plan period.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 24 Jul 2015 01:42

^^^
Let’s be realistic. None of this is funded either.

The Rail ministers plan is to get CPSU, Pension Funds and JICA to fund 850,000 Crore of investment. One wishes him the best of luck but don’t set any railway time tables on this basis. All pie in the sky.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 24 Jul 2015 02:04

Since you assert that the Railway Minister's plan is unrealistic, it's upto you to describe why.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 24 Jul 2015 02:54

The only funding source is LIC and at last call it has been asking for higher interest rates that IR is not sure of committing to. Even if LIC commits that is only 15% of this outlay. In any case none of the planning spade work has been done . If HSR takes 5 years of planning, improving the existing system will take just as much planning, my opinion is much more. No money + No planning = unrealistic.

BTW There are ways to be realistic and make progress if the minister wants to listen.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/ ... -railways/

The fate of the much-hyped loan deal between Railways and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for Rs 1.5 lakh crore is now uncertain. State-owned LIC is learnt to have asked for an upward revision of the rate of interest at which the loan was to be given to the national transporter.

This comes over three months after a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the two and was pegged as critical for the cash-strapped Railways, desperately in need of money for its capacity augmentation works. Faced with the renewed stand on the part of the lender, a surprised Railway Board is learnt to have received indication from the political dispensation that the loan should be “re-negotiated” — virtually a move to start from scratch, sources said. There is also a criticism within the bureaucracy that the MoU was perhaps rushed and required more negotiations to avoid a scenario like this.
....

Much of the success of the Rail Budget depends on funding from outside agencies. The budget has outlined the highest-ever plan size of Rs 1 lakh crore – a 52 per cent jump from last year – with Rs 17,136 crore to be sourced through borrowings from outside institutions.
LIC is the only concrete avenue of institutional financing the organisation has been able to firm up till now. Officials said that even if the deal had a chance of being salvaged with renegotiation, the rate of interest was unlikely to be conservative eventually. - See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/ ... HFDrt.dpuf

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 24 Jul 2015 03:10

Electrification, route widening and rolling stock development are all primarily constrained by lack of prioritization , until now. the primary priority of railway ministers was announcing new trains, not an investment in the fundamentals, until now.

LIC can ask for an upward revision of rates, but GoI can equally armtwist them into accepting the earlier MOU they signed. As an arm of GoI, LIC is the least of the problems here, and that 1.5 lakh crore (out of 8.5 lakh crore overall planned) from them is assured. Railways are making a significant push, with an investor outreach meeting later this month:
Ministry of Railways holds meeting with Banks & Financial Institutions

In his introductory address, Prabhu drew attention of the Banking and Finance community of the numerous initiatives unfolded in the Railway Budget 2015-16 to modernize the system, to remove bottlenecks and to build capacity. He stated that Railways have drawn up an ambitious investment plan of Rs.8.5 lakh crore in the coming 5 years. He referred to the MOU with LIC which has assured funds of Rs.1,50,000 crore in 5 years for Railway projects. Thereafter, a detailed presentation of Railways' investment plans was made at the meeting.

Jayant Sinha, MOS (Finance) appreciated the Ministry of Railways' plans for massive investments in the sector and emphasized the need to get the projects going without delay as the economy is poised at the profound moment between fiscal consolidation and fiscal expansion. He urged for innovation in financing and structuring.

The Governor, RBI, in his speech pointed out the long term nature of investments in Railways and the need to create appropriate structures which will withstand political and regulatory risks in the long term. Learning from the recent past, financing plans will have to provide for more equity cushion, flexible debt structures and allow for a reasonable coverage of cost overruns. He also stressed the need for developing strong technical and economic skills in Banks and FIs for project evaluation and monitoring.

Like with any other large scale investment process, such as for roads, lining up capital is a continuous process. But I don't think there's anything 'pie in the sky' about investing in fundamental infrastructure. If Mr.Prabhu had instead announced 'I will build 20000km of HSR by 2019!', that would qualify as a pie in the sky claim.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 24 Jul 2015 03:25

He might make a liar out of me yet. But LIC has proven a tough nut when it comes to money. Understand I agree with the ministers priorities. This has been the BRF consensus for a long time. The unrealistic part has all to do with No Money + No Planning so far. Priority is nice but cash would be better, esp. say a declared national priority project or dedicated revenue stream from a ticket increase. Maybe even a fuel or electricity surcharge.

Fund raising has always proved a headache for IR. Still even Rs 150,000 Crore is a small chunk of what is required. $110 billion type spending on IR infrastructure is very much pie in sky at present.

The realistic option is to swallow the pain pill. Sell off non-core PSU’s like Air India, divert that Rs 7000 Crore – Rs 10,000 crore saving to IR and with some judicious mix of debt:equity IR can begin a sustainable process of investment and upgradation. IR would be better off than being stuck with 11% interest loan. BTW with a five year moratorium that loan will almost double in size before payback begins. Not wise….

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 24 Jul 2015 03:43

Then fix a number *and* a timeline, based upon which you consider something realistic or a pie in the sky. That's the problem here. Using some fuzzy subjective basis means you can simply keep shifting goalposts to suit the argument.

Rs.1.5 lakh crore ($24 billion) lined up within 2 months - the agreement was concluded in March - out of a planned Rs.8.5 lakh crore ($135 billion), is as good a start as one can accomplish when it comes to funding enterprise investments of this scale. I don't see anything wrong with the approach so far at all. The minister, as well as other GoI entites, have been very proactive at demarcating government funds for seed investment in large scale infrastructure projects, whether road or rail development, until confidence picks up enough such that more private and international funding sources step in.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 24 Jul 2015 05:06

Suraj saar,

I have said my piece. You can have the last word.

Karthik S · Post by **Karthik S** » 24 Jul 2015 05:45

From the ET report I posted on 21 july above:

According to the official, Japanese government has offered to fund the project at a low interest rate. However, the loan offer comes with the rider that 30 per cent of the rolling stock for the project would be sourced from Japanese firms.

Not sure which one is accurate, if the Japanese are willing to fund the project, then Indian government need not look out for funds.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 24 Jul 2015 06:54

For HSR, 30% sourcing from Japanese firms is not such a bad thing at all, as long as they're compelled to JV with Indian cos to do so.

soumik · Post by **soumik** » 24 Jul 2015 15:18

http://www.financialexpress.com/article ... me/106844/

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ind ... 195747.cms

Improving the Indian Railways has been among the major items on the agenda of the NDA government. The Bibek Debroy committee on railways had recently recommended private sector participation in the railways. All this while, the focus has been on spending billions of dollars to build high speed rail corridors linking major cities which could take years to happen.

The Euro 384 million, Spain-based Talgo has come with an entirely different solution. The manufacturer of intercity, high speed and passenger trains has suggested using the legacy network of the Indian Railways to provide faster connectivity. What Talgo plans to do is launch its lighter, faster trains in India for which it has an in-principle nod. If all goes well, the first of these light, fast train sets would be imported into India by the end of the year. The immediate impact will be a reduction in the travel time between Delhi and Mumbai by 30% to 12 hours.

The Talgo trains travel at speeds of 160-220 kilometres per hour, much higher than the current high of 130 kilometres per hour. Though they are slower than the 350 kilometres per hour achieved by high speed trains like Japan’s Shinkansen or France’s TGV, the investment too is much lower. With the government opening up investment in the sector, Talgo is open to setting up a plan to make the trains here.

It could well be the catalyst for other railway manufacturers to come here. Yes, it will make train travel more expensive than now, but would provide faster, comfortable travel to people. Also, since it can be deployed much faster, it will help build the case for high speed rail corridors to be built. All said, it’s the first step to quicker intercity connectivity that the average Indian long distance consumer has been seeking for years. But, what remains to be seen is how the Indian Railways will manage to run fast trains such as these on tracks where we have the slow passenger trains that stop at every station. That could be the biggest challenge.

This looks to be a much cheaper option for speeding up our railways.

Karthik S · Post by **Karthik S** » 24 Jul 2015 18:44

Yes, such trains are better for very long distance journeys such as Delhi-Mumbai. But for shorter distance say around 600KM, bullet trains are better any day.

suryag · Post by **suryag** » 24 Jul 2015 19:48

This is the kind of innovation that ircon or rcf or icf should have done

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 24 Jul 2015 20:16

the talgo 220kmph thing appears to be their intercity diesel EMU model.
http://www.talgo.com/index.php/en/tXXI.php

http://www.talgo.com/pdf/TXXIen.pdf

it has variable width steered axles and tilting system also.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 25 Jul 2015 01:42

Talgo is not a slower HSR system. It's a bogie articulation system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talgo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talgo#Design
The Talgos range from 150km/h intercity trains to the Talgo 350 AVE HSR (the duck-nosed trains) running at 350km/h

Indian Railways Dedicated Freight Corridor project to be completed by 2019

Indian Railways today assured the industry that the ambitious Rs 81,459 cr worth ‘Dedicated Freight Corridor’ (DFC) project, meant for faster goods movement, will be completed by 2019.

“Prevailing scenario in goods transportation is not very good and everybody wants faster movement. Railways is constructing separate corridors for freight to speed up transportation and it will be completed in time,” Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said here at the Assocham conference.

According to the timeline, work on DFC will be completed in phases between 2017 and 2019.

Highlighting the abysmal speed of freight trains, Sinha said, “Currently goods trains are moving at 25/26 km per hour speed. The speed will go up to 100 km per hour on the DFC which will be beneficial for the industry.”

Railways is constructing Eastern Corridor from Ludhiana to Dankuni (1840 kms) and the Western Corridor from Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port (1502 kms).

“At the moment work is going on two corridors – East and West. There will be two more corridors and pre-feasibility study is being undertaken for that,” Sinha said.

The entire Western Corridor is being funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), while the Eastern Corridor from Mughalsarai to Ludhiana is being funded by the World Bank.

Seeking private investment in rail infrastructure, Sinha asked the industry to come forward to participate in capacity augmentation.

“You can invest liberally in rail infrastructure development as railways need big investment,” he said.

Referring to the land acquisition, he said “Though acquiring land is becoming a problem, it has almost completed land acquisition for the project.”

He also said PMO is regularly monitoring the major infrastructure projects, especially those concerning Railways.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 25 Jul 2015 03:23

The Talgo trains travel at speeds of 160-220 kilometres per hour, much higher than the current high of 130 kilometres per hour.

Since the KHSRL is dead as a dodo. This might provide fast connectivity between Trivandrum and Cochin, the distance being just 220km. A non-stop in one hour flat, not bad at all.

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 25 Jul 2015 03:34

But such rolling stock will need dedicated tracks, not to mention relatively straight and much faster tracks. Isn't the cost of land acquisition in KL very high already?

Let IR first invest in upgrading the existing tracks to handle 110kmph first (current max speed being 80kmph). Even that can shave off a good hour on most trains.

Karthik S · Post by **Karthik S** » 25 Jul 2015 03:53

arshyam wrote:But such rolling stock will need dedicated tracks, not to mention relatively straight and much faster tracks. Isn't the cost of land acquisition in KL very high already?

Let IR first invest in upgrading the existing tracks to handle 110kmph first (current max speed being 80kmph). Even that can shave off a good hour on most trains.

In the article it's mentioned these trains will use the existing tracks.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 25 Jul 2015 03:57

Karthik S wrote:In the article it's mentioned these trains will use the existing tracks.

I don't think that will be possible without serious upgrades as arshyam points out.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 25 Jul 2015 04:04

Looks like there are no easy cheaper solutions. If more Land is needed, then might as well go for the 300+kmph designs, to get more bang for the buck.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 25 Jul 2015 07:16

http://www.thebetterindia.com/22019/kin ... y-station/
An Engineer Adopted a Railway Station. What He and His Team Did With It in 4 Months Will Amaze You.

Damani started his ambitious project in December 2014, and the first thing he did was identify the dirtiest spot in King’s Circle station. This was the first place that was cleaned before moving on to other areas in the station

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 25 Jul 2015 07:49

to some extent the tilting system might help with existing curves plus the fact the bogies are light.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 25 Jul 2015 14:42

25 companies have responded to global RFI for modern trainsets.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 25 Jul 2015 19:15

Weren't the LHB rakes supposed to be the the magic bullet back in the day. Even the LHB max speed of 200kmph was never achieved.

BTW I'm fairly certain the tilting will be disabled for India. The loading gauge is not built for it. Imagine the train starts tilting inside a curved tunnel or along a curved platform or starts activating along the station mainline past existing platform. Quite a dangerous situation. If you want tilting systems you will have to rebuild the sections it will run on to accommodate the motion. Don't Jugaad this.