Train 18/Vande Bharat Express: Indian Railways Round Up

Indian Railways (IR) is always in the news. Even at the risk of, by now, a cliched repetition, I have to say that IR is an institution which so many love and so many love to love, some love to hate, and a few actually hate, but none like to ignore. I, therefore, venture, through a series of blogs, to explore these news items, and add my tuppence to this cacophony of positivity, excitement and unadulterated hype, the good, the bad and yes, also the ugly.

My attempt today is simple: check out what is out there about the cynosure of many eyes and a whipping boy for some. Train 18/Vande Bharat express and how genuine excitement has been overtaken by consummate aggrandizement. 

A sterling team of brilliant engineers and technicians from Integral Coach factory (ICF) and allied industry came together with great synergy, conceptualized and delivered Train 18/Vande Bharat express in 2018; a near world-class train, made entirely in India in just 18 months at a fraction of what it would take both in terms of time and cost, anywhere across the globe. This train caught the imagination of the countrymen because they saw it as a symbol of resurgent and aspirational India. The train paved the way for a whole new ballgame in rail transportation, not a mere organic continuation of what IR had been used to producing in respect of trains but a courageous, transformational leapfrog into future, a signal that India had arrived on the global scene in Rail sector.

 

Its success, as they say, became its nemesis, as sadly in our country, a few good men have to contend with venal machinations of self-centred and mercenary players all the time. A web of negativity was bandied about by bureaucratic minions even as the PM himself kept praising the train profusely in public. Its production was halted after the first two and the specification was revised, driven by extraneous factors and not by any deficiency in the product; it attempts to enhance the acceleration of a train which was at the optimum already or improve its ride-index although it is acknowledged to have a ride, far more comfortable vis-à-vis the existing coaches. Even as the dirty pool of the so-called experts who had nothing to show for in terms of a successful outcome continued, the PM made a definitive announcement on 15^th August 2021 that 75 Vande Bharat trains would run across the country in 75 weeks.

 

Much water has since flown down the Thames, or rather, the Adyar. There was a change of regime in the Ministry of railways, the vibes reversed dramatically and the new minister gave a palpable push to turn out these trains like the proverbial blue streak. As the activities picked up at ICF in true earnest, the budget this year sprang another surprise by the Finance Minister that 400 Vande Bharat trains would be manufactured in the coming three years.

 

The likely turn-out of the third and fourth rakes has since been watched very closely. Starting with a target of two rakes by March 22, repeated slippages now peg it to two rakes by August 15^th; in the background of 75 trains in 75 weeks or by Jan ’23, do remember, better is half a loaf than no bread and one hopes that this time the target is finally met. I hear pure drivel by responsible stakeholders as to why the train would be better than the first two; drivel because not a word about genuine improvements that are indeed needed but on the chimera of wasteful faster acceleration and ride comfort. I too would be naturally very happy if the train is better than its previous avatar but, for that, I hope, most, if not all of the issues I brought out here have been addressed:

 

http://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2022/01/new-train-18vande-bharat-exp-must-excel.html

 

Another curious announcement has been that the production capacity of these trains was being enhanced from four to six rakes per month at ICF. ICF is perhaps stressed out to go into a mad rush to reach close to, the lofty timeline of 75 trains by Jan ’23 but this seems unnecessary as even if they reach a level of four trains per month, it would be a job well done as they have not made any train for more than three years. Nobody would need to eat crow if ICF goes about making these trains more cautiously so that the quality does not deteriorate.

 

One good decision has been that the initial lot of 75 trains, if not more, would be made only at ICF, and the other two factories, MCF and RCF would not be the eager beavers to join the bandwagon, not as yet. Their time too would come but let the product stabilize.

 

So far so good. In April this year a tender was floated for 200 Vande Bharat Sleeper trains to be built by a rolling stock major in ICF and Latur, more or less on the Train 20 model. The bid opening has been postponed to October but given the magnitude of the project, this delay is not serious, there is no bone to pick here. Another tender for 100 Aluminium-bodied Sleeper+Chair Car distributed-power train sets, to be manufactured at the newly-created facility at Sonipat, has also been announced, and likely to be followed up with another 100 Aluminium-bodied loco-hauled ones. One can go on nit-picking about where would all these trains be deployed as our pool of Shatabdi, Rajdhani and similar faster services is much smaller but I would let go of that and wait for the things to pan out. Yet what is absolutely bizarre is that these trains have to be designed to operate at 200 kmph, to be tested at 220 kmph. IR has no such tracks for testing, let alone operation. Is it a classic example of an overzealous IR putting the cart before the horse? Meanwhile, I came across this:

 

Someone sent it to me as official IR release and I heard in news here and there too, that while the earlier two rakes were fit for 160 kmph, the third rake would be fit for 180 kmph. What a joke! The first rake was tested at 180 kmph and so would the 3^rd rake be tested so where is the need or compulsion to find virtue in a necessity? But what takes the cake is the grandiose declaration of Vande Bharat 3 at 220 kmph. Earlier, Research, Designs and Standards Organization (RDSO), which made a contribution in development of Train 18 only in its statutory testing, and which employed its cut-and-paste expertise to vitiate the specification with superfluous inputs although the first two train were running successfully, announced that if all went well, a set of 100 trains that could cruise at 200 kmph would soon hit the railway tracks across the country. 200 kmph, Forsooth!  One would have expected the ToI reporter, Mr. Arvind Chauhan to ask a rudimentary question as to where these magic tracks across the country are.

 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/after-t-18-success-trains-cruising-at-200km-per-hour-to-be-a-reality-soon/articleshow/92643161.cms

 

And now, the coup de grâce of the hypeland. Livemint reports that “after the successful launch of the indigenously developed Train 18, India is looking to export the rakes to other nations, said two people in the know. Neighbouring countries in South Asia and a few countries in Latin America have evinced interest.”

 

https://www.livemint.com/economy/india-looks-to-export-vande-bharat-trains-11657222395757.html

 

Mr.Subhash Narayan, where are these people in the know domiciled? In Fool’s Paradise? Train 18 in Nepal? A joke as their total track length is less than 50 km. Sri Lanka? They have no money even for fuel. Bangladesh? Their trains run today at less than 100 kmph whereas they do have a HSR planned between Dhaka and Chittagong. And sir, Train 18 needs OHE which these countries do not have! As for Latin America, I am reminded of the Railway Board worthy, who was deliberately kept away from the Train 18 development lest he may cause irreparable damage, when he rushed to TV reporters after Train 18 reached Delhi in late 2018 for the launch, saying that Peru had expressed interest in Train 18 just to grab some dregs of publicity. Friends, any country with a rail system worth its name would first check as to how many we run in our country. Two? Vamoose, they would exclaim, first go run twenty trains successfully for a year in your country before pipe-dreaming of exporting to us. By the way, a small Malaysian company, exports more locomotives in Africa than IR, using Indian sub-assemblies and skilled engineers/technicians. Yes, please put your house in order before vacuous grandstanding.

 

Train 18 is good and it sure would be improved in times to come. But the bard, through Salisbury in King John, has taught us to shun bombastic and ludicrous exaggerations, “To guard a title that was rich before, To gild refined gold, to paint the lily…Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.” Why try to embellish something that doesn’t need it because it already is beautiful, or as they say in today’s world, why attempt to gild the lily?

 

One last word. IR seems to have finalized the plan of setting up Vande Bharat depots for maintenance at 15 stations on the possible 28 routes of Shatabdis and other intercity trains. We need a robust plan to run these trains in large numbers all over the country with proper maintenance facilities and training of staff before we push these rakes on unprepared railway zones, running the risk of frequent cancellations and disruptions due to maintenance downtime and reduced reliability? Once again, IR must tread with caution. In the beginning for 30 rakes or so, the intended routes should first be concentrated around 2 or 3 depots in addition to Delhi and only after the system for their running and maintenance is consolidated, should they think of introducing more routes with additional maintenance depots.

 

All this said, what if all this hype actually becomes a reality. I would be very happy as I too hope for futuristic upgrades of IR wistfully. I doubt if these ‘hypesters’ of IR follow Shakespeare but I am, nevertheless, tempted to bung Bendick from Much Ado About Nothing at them, “I would my horse had the speed of your tongue.’’

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