Indian Railways in Vande (Amrit?) Kaal All Vande Vande Wonders One Day

 

I carry forward my thoughts from the previous blog: http://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2023/04/indian-railways-in-amrit-kaal.html

Readers are familiar with how Mr. Gadkari, the Minister of Road Transport and Highways operates. He talks big and likes to make huge announcements. Some of it is indeed bluster, like saying that India’s road infrastructure would be like the US by 2024. Not all but a lot, however, soon turns into proof of the pudding and he gets due acclaim too from countrymen as a doer.

 

Contrast this with the Ministry of Railways. Big ticket announcements are made, the hoopla continues for some time and then they are forgotten as soon as it is time to move to the next big one. Arguably, there has been decisive action on tenders of unprecedented value in the last year or so. Kudos for that. But this blog is about announcements related to Vande Bharat variations, which appear like a flamboyant build-up without that much substance. There are many examples but let me talk of the significant ones here:

 

The Ministry announced 25 sets of Vande Freight, the Vande Bharat version of Freight EMU to be run at 160 kmph at a cost of Rs 60 crore per set last year, and set aside budget for the same. The project was ill-conceived as 160 kmph for a freight train is impractical. This speed is not achieved even for passenger Vande Bharats, barring one train, due to inadequacies of ground infrastructure. The target clientele was not conceived, let alone bringing them on board and above all, handling infrastructure of such a train was an imponderable. It is no wonder that the project is all but blown away.

 

I wrote about it too in May 22:

http://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2022/05/strange-are-ways-of-indian-railways.html

Refer: https://m.economictimes.com/industry/transportation/railways/railways-eyeing-lucrative-ecommerce-space-making-vande-bharat-like-freight-trains-that-can-run-at-160-kmph/articleshow/91224847.cms

Then there was this buzz about Non-Vande Double-Decker, a cargo cum passenger coach announced in the Budget of 2022. In respect of handling of this animal, the problems would be even more acute as compared to freight EMU as a train with such coaches has to be handled essentially on a passenger platform. Has anyone heard about it or has it perhaps already died its ignominious death?

Refer: https://swarajyamag.com/news-brief/budget-2022-23-double-decker-cargo-cum-passenger-train-to-be-built-at-rcf

A flurry of announcements continue in respect of Vande Bharat variants. It is raining Vande Bharats and everyone, including the chief creators of the hype, are also at a loss to remember which one is which. Let me begin, like Pistol in the bard’s who called out in The Merry Wives of Windsor, “The world's mine oyster, which I with sword will open”, never mind that he wanted money whereas all I want is clarity.

So what exactly is the much-hyped Vande Metro? The ministry has fashioned it as a train to cater to cities located within a radius of 100 km, making four to five trips in a day and that the train would have world-class amenities. The train will have most of the features of Vande Bharat but with space for standee passengers without pantry equipment. But ask the ministry, (sadly nobody does) as to give example of two target pair of cities. Lucknow-Kanpur? Even if the ticket prices for this train will be lower as compared to VB, occupation would be a serious challenge. Those who travel in MEMUs today, pay one-fifth the price whereas it would be difficult to attract new clientele as even a seat is not assured and cut down in travel time is not in the offing as newer VBs have shown. To my mind the sister of Train 18, which was prototyped in 2018 and is under manufacture after a series of delays, the MEMU with VB type underslung equipment without frills but with provision of AC would fit the bill better at 60% the cost.

Refer: https://www.businessleague.in/vande-bharat-metro-good-news-for-passengers-vande-bharat-metro-likely-to-start-in-this-city-by-december-2023/

You now think you know what Vande Metro is? Hang on. A new version is mooted for Mumbai suburban with all VB features except seating and toilets. A tender for 238 such 12-car trains has already been called by MRVC with an estimated price of around 90 cr per train. Another overkill as the other sister of Train 18, which was prototyped in 2018 but only one such train is in service, the 12-car AC EMU with VB type underslung equipment without frills would be more suited at approximately Rs 50 cr each.

Refer:https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/railways/mrvc-invites-international-bids-to-procure-238-vande-metro-trains-for-mumbais-suburban-network/articleshow/101171067.cms

But these are Vande days, so who cares? Let us name them suitably for our purpose as symbolism and nomenclature, like it or not, have proved to be powerful! Vande Metro Inter-city and Vande Metro Suburban .

One first heard a lot about Hydrogen trains and so even before the prototype is out, the Vande hype fever has caught up. The Hydrogen train under development is for  retrofit on BG DEMUs for operation near Sonipat. Never mind that our BG tracks are going to be fully electrified soon whereas the USP of such trains is green operation in non-electrified territory. The ministry seems to have realized their overkill without any sound rationale for operation on BG tracks, modified the announcement to say that Hydrogen trains will first roll out on heritage circuits such as the Kalka-Shimla route by December 2023 and later even vandefied it.

But the name of the train? You guessed it right. Vande Metro Hydrogen. Why not Vande Heritage Hydrogen? How does it matter? I will literally eat my words if anything resembling a Hydrogen train is seen around Kalka by December ‘23 as neither such orders have been placed or bids invited for the trains, ground installations and the logistic of supply of green Hydrogen yet.

Refer: https://youtu.be/bLBLaLw8_Ng

And some two weeks back came the bombshell or the Vande Coup De Grâce, the non-AC Vande Sadharan. I thought this indeed is the final flag in Vande Aghadi but soon found out that this animal will have 24 LHB Sleeper and General coaches and a locomotive at either end for long-distance journey.

Well, more premium services like VBEs should be introduced and the money earned from them should be routed to improving facilities for the poorest of passengers. We cannot be a developed country if our people continue to travel like they do in general coaches. That whether we would be a developed country some time in Amrit Kaal, say 20 years from now, is not the question; we have to believe that we would reach there and then plan and empower accordingly. There is a mindset problem here, some in IR think that these categories of passengers pay a pittance and hence should suffer poor facilities as a consequence. But this is a chicken and egg question which must be discarded. In a developed India, the common passenger will have enough in their pockets to afford AC travel. Yes, every route can have one non-AC train if we feel that the migrant population cannot afford it in foreseeable future but they must be proffered dignified travel with a seat or a berth for all. If the Vande Sadharan addresses that, I would support it but why make locomotive-hauled? It is possible to design a Vande equivalent within the Rs 65-70 cr outlay envisaged for this in a low-cost no-frills (a so-called non-elite) version to run at 130 kmph, with all its advantages of cut down in travel time, flexible operational and ease of maintenance.

Refer:https://www.timesnownews.com/delhi/indian-railways-to-soon-launch-budget-friendly-non-ac-vande-sadharan-train-article-101458003

The only thing which is actually going to materialize soon is this 28^th Vande Bharat with a striking new livery in bright orange, gray and off-white. But pretty soon, views-happy Youtubers and even channels started calling it the Vande Sleeper version. Indeed, I will close this blog with my Vande Blues about Vande Sleeper. As for the colour scheme, I like it but some found it controversy and hype here too: they viewed it as an extension of the tricolour and with a chant of “Jai Hind’ whereas some others tried to decry it as the government painting the train saffron, literally. Let me give a short shrift to this idle antagonistic slug fest and instead welcome it with a name of my own: Vande Narangi.

Refer:https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/industry/vande-bharat-express-indias-semi-high-speed-train-gets-a-makeover-exclusive-article-101600063

My Vande Blues, my angst: the Vande Sleeper, the sleeper version of Vande Bharat, which was a work in progress at ICF way back in 2018 but is nowhere to be seen. I had always maintained that after 35/40 day-trains, IR would find it difficult to deploy these trains meaningfully and remuneratively unless it had a sleeper version ready to replace Rajdhanis. Chicken come home to roost and the stark reality stares IR in the face. First IR decided to split one train into two 8-coach versions to kill two birds with one stone: a cynical strategy to increase the number of trains to meet, or at least near, the PM’s target of 75 VBs by 15^th August 2023 and second, somehow show good occupancy in unpopular routes, ignoring the age-old maxim of railways that paths are expensive which should be exploited fully to run trains with as many coaches as possible. Even this has not helped and we have Dharwad, Indore, Jabalpur, Ajmer VB etc. with very poor occupancy.     

Let us not forget Vande Bharat variation in SG to run at 240 kmph which I support as it gives ICF an opportunity to grow far beyond Train 18. My tweet connects:

https://twitter.com/ManiSudhanshu58/status/1663347554656960512?s=20 Giving it a name now, Vande SG High-Speed. Talking of SG version, can we forget the guy who said that IR plans to export VBs to Nepal and Bangladesh, omitting to mention or recall that these countries do not even have electrified tracks, let alone the money, but nevertheless, it deserves a name, Vande Hawai.

Wonders may well be in store but not any soon. A Sleeper version should be forthcoming through the contract placed on M/s TRSL-BHEL (and perhaps the one even on TMH-RVNL, at present in doldrums) in 2025 or that to be placed on Alstom (hopefully, as the financial bids for the 200 kmph Aluminium version, which could be a game-changer to move beyond Train 18 developed in 2018, languishes in the ministry, call it Vande Aluminium or Vande 200), in 2026. IR may even test our longanimity by reviving the moribund tender through ordering Vande Concentrated. Or, the contract placed on BEML, rather surprisingly after the TRSL-BHEL and TMH-RVNL contracts were in final stages, for ten sets of Sleepers may actually see the light of the day in 2024 as Vande BEML.

But there is not going to be a Vande Sleeper which ICF would be able to call its own. The pride of creation of the design would be missing. In Henry VI, Part 2, the bard had Salisbury say, “Pride went before, ambition follows him. While these do labour for their own preferment, Behoves it us to labour for the realm...” but I read it differently. Pride is good. It enhances and works for country’s advancement first, maybe oneself too but later, whereas ambition works mainly for buzz and hubbub. We need Vande Solid, not Vande Drama. 

                                                     …

PS: Mr. Kishore Nambiar pointed out that the blended wing body in the cover photo is a killer and I should name it Vande Vimaan.