When will the trains of Indian Railways speed away? Part 1

Indian main-line mail express trains operate at 130 km/h top speed on defined Rajdhani routes and between 100 to 120 km/h on other main routes. This is the status for nearly half a century. The sections cleared for operation above 130 km/h speed are nothing to write home about, as they exist simply for demonstration purpose in fads to upgrade to 140, then 150 and subsequently 160 km/h. Why is our progress so abject?

 

We sometimes compare our passenger operations with the US, claiming that they also do not have High-Speed Rail. True. But then they have the world’s best network of highways which the Americans prefer to drive on instead of riding trains and an intensely competitive air travel option. Well, even what they have compares pretty favourably with what we have. 

As has happened in the past too, as I was preparing to write on the subject, I got this write-up from my American friend, Prakash Tendulkar, who is not only very knowledgeable about railroads but also takes a keen interest in the goings on in IR. It has brought out things in a different perspective succinctly so before I hit my keyboard seriously, I am simply sharing his wisdom, which he has gracefully permitted me to use, and I reproduce verbatim:

 

T-18 by Sudhanshu Mani woke up the Railway Board from a deep slumber. The notion that new technology cannot be developed in India, it must be imported from abroad with a transfer of technology was proven to be incorrect.

I had been thinking about writing about a comparison of High-Speed Rail or HSR in the US and India since the concept is in its infancy in both countries.

In the United States, the Federal Railroad Administration (or FRA) has developed a system of classification for track quality. The class of a section of track determines the maximum possible running speed limits and the ability to run passenger trains.

 

This Table  shows the current classification for passenger traffic.

Barring Amtrak's NE corridor, most of the passenger trains (Amtrak and Regional) operate on Class 4 and Class 5 tracks.  There is no fencing around the tracks and grade crossings (Level crossing in India) do exist. However, this situation is changing with newer players coming into the field, such as Texas Central Railway and California HSR.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a final rule on Nov. 20, 2018, it says helps to support a new era in public transportation with the establishment of safety standards for high-speed trains.

The final rule defines a new category of HSR operations, known as Tier III, and makes it possible for high-speed rail to utilize existing infrastructure, saving the expense of building new rail lines. FRA says Tier III passenger trains can operate over the shared track at conventional speeds and as fast as 220 mph (350 kmph) in areas with exclusive rights-of-way and without grade crossings.

 

Amtrak has ordered 28 trainsets from Alstom in 2016. These are the first trainsets built under FRA’s Tier III rule, which sets new design specifications to allow for operation at the highest speeds and on shared corridors. Each trainset will consist of two power cars (one at each end),

seven Business Class coaches, one First Class coach, and a café car. Business Class—designated by the color “blue” will include 378 seats on each train, providing “spacious, high-end comfort,” according to Amtrak. Available at every seat: Personal outlets, USB ports, and adjustable reading lights. The section will also feature streamlined overhead luggage compartments. Additional Business Class amenities will include tray tables; complimentary Wi-Fi; an advanced seat reservation system; an onboard information system providing location, train speed, and conductor announcements; and headrests with “wings” so you don’t fall asleep on your neighbour.

 

Now, how does it compare with IR? T-18 has speed characteristics similar to Acela Express. For a distance of only 55 km., Acela Express travels at 125 mph or 200 kmph. T-18 is easily capable of 160 kmph in certain segments, otherwise, the speed is lesser than that.

 

The plans are to increase MPS to 200 kmph, something that Amtrak Regional and Acela Express also travel at.  This track is not dedicated to passenger traffic; it is shared  with freight trains also. The track is not fenced.

It is up to you to decide if a new generation of T-18 running at 200 kmph, can be accommodated on the existing shared, unfenced track?

 

So, we lag behind even the US, which is nowhere in the world-map of speedy passenger trains and at times ridiculed for its lack of proper passenger train services. A whole lot of excuses are forwarded in either country on their lack of fast passenger trains, on incompatibility, unnecessity, unsuitability and so on, somewhat in the fashion of Stephano saying in the bard’s The Tempest, “Though thou canst swim like a duck, thou art made like a goose.”

 

Semi-high-speed train sector is ill-defined but in Indian context, stuck as we are in the mail/express train speed range of 110 to 130 km/h for decades, it would convey passenger train operation in the speed range of 160 to 200 km/h.

 

The reality on IR is far-removed from the hope. IR has only a small stretch of track and allied infrastructure between Delhi and Agra which is fit for trains to run at 160 km/h.  IR has been talking about running coaching trains at 160 km/h speed for more than five decades since 1960s and the timeline for achieving the  number of times the same has been revised is embarrassingly high. IR’s flagship trains, Rajdhanis and Shatabdis continue to ply at the same maximum speeds since their induction.

 

Another important aspect which is perhaps as important, if not more, than the maximum speed of operation is the average speed of trains. It tells you the capacity of IR to run passenger trains consistently at a good speed. Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India recently tabled a report in the parliament severely berating IR for not making any perceptible improvement in the running speed of mail/express trains despite spending a significant amount of Rs 2.5 lakh crore on track infrastructure between 2008 and 2019. The report stated that the average speed of mail and express trains in 2019-20 was only 50.6 km, which is less than 1% higher than what was registered a decade back. IR has talked about ‘Mission Raftaar’ since 2016-17, which envisaged the average running speed of mail and express trains from 50 kmph to 75 kmph by 2021-22.  While the target has been missed by a mile, there appears to be no hope of achieving even an average speed of 60 Km/h in near future.

 

A project to increase the maximum speed of operation to 160 km/h on Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai section is in hand since 2017. While the target date of completion has long past, the project is not likely to see completion even by 2024. There appears to be a need to look at the strategy of IR closely as such default surely indicates faulty planning.

 

Briefly, the outlook in respect of IR trains reaching anywhere near consistent 160 km/h operation over long stretches appears to be bleak. Can something be done in coming years, not decades? Yes, it is possible not only to upgrade to 160 km/h but 200 km/h as well. I, in collaboration with my friend, M.K.Gupta, Retd. Member Engineering, Railway Board, who knows more on the subject, will soon write on the subject for a newspaper; watch this space too.

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