Of Bullets, Bureaucrats and Broken Signals: The HSR Train May Yet Redeem the Wait
When news surfaced that China had tested its new-generation CR450 trains, social media went into hyperdrive. Facts and fiction whizzed past each other faster than the trains themselves. The wildest claim? That China had achieved a speed of 896 kmph. Well, no — this isn’t a MagLev. The CR450 runs on wheels, and wheels doing 896 kmph would be less “train” and more “missile on holiday”. In reality, the 896 kmph was the combined relative speed when two CR450s crossed paths during testing; the highest actual speed clocked was 453 kmph. Still, the train’s planned operating speed of 400 kmph will make it the fastest wheel-on-rail service on Earth. (China’s record-holding 432 kmph MagLev, after all, floats above the rails.) Even at 400 kmph, the feat is awe-inspiring — and, for us Indians, a little painful. For while China streaks ahead, our own Mumbai–Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (HSR) project has spent nearly a decade still trying to leave the station. While India had debated and ...